y own son!' she
answered angrily.

'But in all that I have been saying, if they say it too, the Methodists
are right, mother. A redeemed sinner is one bought with a price, and
thenceforth neither his spirit nor his body can be his own. And his
happiness is not to be his own.'

Mrs. Dallas was violently moved, yet she had much self-command and
habitual dignity of manner, and would not break down now. More pitiful
than tears was the haughty gesture of her head as she turned it aside
to hide the quivering lips. And more tender than words was the air with
which her son presently stooped and took her hand.

'Mother!' he said gently and tenderly.

'Pitt, I never would have believed this of you!' she said with bitter
emphasis.

'You never could have believed anything so good of me.'

'What are you going to _do?_' she repeated vehemently. 'What does all
this amount to? or is it anything but dissenting rant?'

'Anything but that,' he answered gravely. 'Mother, do you remember the
words,--"No man when he hath lighted a lamp covereth it with a vessel,
or putteth it under a bed; but putteth it on a stand, that they which
enter in may see the light"? Every Christian is such a lighted lamp,
intended for some special place and use. My special use and place I do
not yet know; but this I know plainly, that my work in the world, one
way or another, must be the Lord's work. For that I live henceforth.'

'You will go into the Church?' cried his mother.

'Not necessarily.'

'You will give up reading law?'

'No, I think not. At present it seems to me I had better finish what I
have begun. But if I do, mother, my law will be only one of the means I
have to work with for that one end.'

'And I suppose your money would be another?'

'Undoubtedly.'

'What has money to do with teaching people?' Miss Frere asked. It was
the first word she had spoken; she spoke it seriously, not mockingly.
The question brought his eyes round to her.

'Do you ask that?' said he. 'Every unreasoning, ignorant creature of
humanity understands it. The love that would win them for heaven would
also help them on earth; and if they do not see the one thing, they do
not believe in the other.'

'Then-- But-- What do you propose?'

'It is simple enough,' he said.

'It is too simple for Betty and me,' said his mother. 'I would be
obliged to you, Pitt, to answer her.'

The young man's countenance changed; a shadow fell over it which raised
Miss Frere's