displeased?'

'I think I can answer for that.'

'Then do tell me why, when you are just going away and cannot carry it
on, you should have done what you did last night?'

'As I am just going away, don't you see, it was my only chance.'

'But I do not understand why you did it. You knew it would be something
like an earthquake; and what is the use of earthquakes?'

'You remember the Eastern theory--Burmese, is it? or
Siamese?--according to which the world rests on the heads of four
elephants; when one of the elephants shakes his head, there is an
earthquake. But must not the elephant therefore move his head?'

'But the world does not rest on _your_ head.'

'I do not forget that,' said Pitt gravely. 'Not the world, but a small
piece of it does rest on my head, as on that of every other human
creature. On the right position and right movement of every one of us
depends more than we know. What we have to do is to keep straight and
go straight.'

'But did you think it was _duty_ to do what you did last night?'

'I did it in that faith.'

'I wish you would explain to me!' cried the lady. 'I cannot understand.
I believe you, of course; but _why_ did you think it duty? It just
raised a storm; you know it did; they did not like it; and it would
only make them more opposed to your new principles. I do not see how it
could do any good.'

'Yes,' said Pitt, who meanwhile was going on with his packing and
putting away. 'I know all that. But don't you think people ought to
show their colours, as much as ships at sea?'

'Ships at sea do not always show their colours.'

'If they do not, when there is occasion, it is always ground for
suspicion. It shows that they are for some reason either afraid or
ashamed to announce themselves.'

'I do not understand!' said Miss Frere perplexedly. 'Why should _you_
show your colours?'

'I said I was moved by duty to propose prayers last night. It was more
than that.' Pitt stopped in his going about the room and stood opposite
his fair opponent, if she can be called so, facing her with steady eyes
and a light in them which drew her wonder. 'It was more than duty.
Since I have come to see the goodness of Christ, and the happiness of
belonging to Him, I wish exceedingly that everybody else should see it
and know it as I do.'

'And, if I remember, you intimated once that it was to be the business
of your life to make them know it?'

'What do you think of that purpose?'

'It seems