Deeply red, Polly took her courage in both hands, and struck a blow for
the soul whose salvation was more to her than her own. "Richard, do you
think that ... is ... is right?" she asked in a low voice.

Mahony raised his head. "Eh?--what, Pollykin?"

"I mean, do you think you ought ... that it is right to do what you are
doing?"

The smile, half-tender, half-quizzical that she loved, broke over her
husband's face. He held out his hand. "Is my little wife troubled?"

"Richard, I only mean..."

"Polly, my dear, don't worry your little head over what you don't
understand. And have confidence in me. You know I wouldn't do anything
I believed to be wrong?"

"Yes, indeed. And you are really far more religious than I am."

"One can be religious and yet not shut one's eyes to the truth. It's
Saint Paul, you know, who says: we can do nothing against the Truth but
for the Truth. And you may depend on it, Polly, the All-Wise would
never have given us the brains He has, if He had not intended us to use
them. Now I have long felt sure that the Bible is not wholly what it
claims to be--direct inspiration."

"Oh, Richard!" said Polly, and threw an anxious glance over her
shoulder. "If anyone should hear you!"

"We can't afford to let our lives be governed by what other people
think, Polly. Nor will I give any man the right to decide for me what
my share of the Truth shall be."

On seeing the Bible closed Polly breathed again, at the same time
promising herself to take the traitorous volume into safe-keeping, that
no third person's eye should rest on it. Perhaps, too, if it were put
away Richard would forget to go on writing in it. He had probably begun
in the first place only because he had nothing else to do. In the store
he sat and smoked and twirled his thumbs--not half a dozen customers
came in, in the course of the day. If he were once properly occupied
again, with work that he liked, he would not be tempted to put his
gifts to such a profane use. Thus she primed herself for speaking. For
now was the time. Richard was declaring that trade had gone to the
dogs, his takings dropped to a quarter of what they had formerly been.
This headed just where she wished. But Polly would not have been Polly,
had she not glanced aside for a moment, to cheer and console.

"It's the same everywhere, Richard. Everybody's complaining. And that
reminds me, I forgot to tell you about the Beamishes. They're in great
trouble. You see, a b