'You keep a fire going anywhere, and it will burn up what is next to
it.'

'Is thought like fire?'

'So far, it is. What were you thinking about, Queen Esther?'

'I had been wanting to ask you about it, Pitt,' the girl said, a little
with the air of one who is rousing herself up to give a confidence. 'I
was looking for something and I did not know where to find it.'

'Looking for what?'

'I remembered, mamma said people could always find comfort in the
Bible; but I did not know how to look for it.'

'Comfort, Queen Esther!' said Pitt, rousing himself now; 'you were not
in want of that article, were you?'

'After you were gone, you know--I hadn't anybody left. And oh, Pitt,
are you going to--England?'

'One thing at a time. Tell me about this extraordinary want of comfort,
at twelve years old. That is improper, Queen Esther!'

'Why?' she said, casting up to him a pair of such wistful, sensitive,
beautiful eyes, that the young man was almost startled.

'People at your age ought to have comfort enough to give away to other
people.'

'I shouldn't think they could, always,' said Esther quaintly.

'What is the matter with you?'

Esther looked down, a little uneasily. She felt that Pitt ought to have
known. And he did know; however, he thought it advisable to have things
brought out into the full light and put into form; hoping they might so
be easier dealt with. Esther's next words were hardly consecutive,
although perfectly intelligible.

'I know, of course, you cannot stay here always.'

'Of course. But then I shall always be coming back.'

Esther sighed. She was thinking that the absences were long and the
times of being at home short; but what was the use of talking about it?
That lesson, that words do not change the inevitable, she had already
learned. Pitt was concerned.

'Where did you say your highness went to look for comfort?'

'In the Bible. Oh, yes, that was what I wanted your help about. I did
not know how to look; and papa said he didn't; or I don't know if he
_said_ exactly that, but it came to the same thing. And then I asked
Barker.'

'Was she any wiser?'

'No. She said her way of finding anything was to begin at one end and
go through to the other; so I tried that. I began at the beginning; and
I read on; but I found nothing until--I'll show you,' she said,
suddenly breaking off and darting away; and in two minutes more she
came back with her Bible. She turned over the leaves eagerl