"'Well, you have your doubts?'
"His face flushed, his eyes searched mine with a look almost of defiance in them.
"'Yes,' I continued, coloring painfully, for I am young and afraid to express adverse opinions, 'I sometimes doubt if it is not a little wicked.'
"He laughed, 'Oh, you are young, and a woman.'
"'Well,' I answered, 'this is what I mean, when I finished reading that book, it made me restless, unhappy—discontented with everything around me.'
"'That is, perhaps, because you did not understand it.'
"'But goodness is so simple, I can understand that always.'
"'I grant you, but human life is not all perfection; unfortunately, good and evil are pretty nearly balanced on this earth, and there is nothing picturesque enough in a dead-level of goodness to interest the reader through an entire story. To attempt that, would be like painting a picture without shadows. Your real author understands the force of contrasts.'
"'But a book which has so little of the virtuous and pure in it, yields up this power of contrast, by letting no sunshine into its pages,' I said. 'The fault of this work is, that it dwells too entirely on the dark passions.'
"'Then you condemn it?'