Ray rose to put away the tea table, and she found herself sitting alone with the lawyer. There was a moment's silence, and then, as if thinking out aloud what was on her mind, she said:
"Thank God, he's safe; I had the most fearful premonitions——"
The lawyer laughed.
"Don't put your trust in premonitions—things happen or they don't happen. It's absurd to believe that misfortunes are all prepared beforehand."
"Then you are not a fatalist?"
"Decidedly not. I hope I have too much intelligence to believe in anything so foolish."
"Do you believe in a Supreme Being who has the same power to suddenly snuff us out of existence as he had to create us?"
"I neither believe nor disbelieve. Frankly, I do not know. What people call God, Jehovah, Nature, according to my reasoning, is an astounding energy, a marvellous chemical process, created and controlled by some unknown, stupendous first cause, the origin of which man may never understand. How should he? He has not time. We are rushed into the world without preparation. We are ignorant, helpless, blind. Gradually, by dint of much physical labor and mental toil, we succeed in ferreting out a few facts regarding ourselves and the physical laws that govern us. We are just on the verge of discovering more—we are just beginning to understand and enjoy life—when suddenly we find ourselves growing old and decrepit. Our physical and mental powers fail us, and the same force that benevolently created us now mercilessly destroys us, and we are hurled, willy-nilly, back into eternity whence we came. Rather absurd, isn't it?"
Intensely interested Helen looked up. Eagerly she exclaimed:
"You have a whole system of philosophy in a mere handful of words, haven't you?"