"No," said Elizabeth in a bird-like tone, "I didn't. What would you do, Mr. Eades?"
"Why, of course you could not go to a prison," replied Eades.
"But you could, couldn't you? And you do?"
"Only when necessary."
"But you do, Mr. Modderwell?"
"Only professionally," said Modderwell solemnly, for once remembering his clerical dignity.
"Oh, professionally!" said Elizabeth with a meaning. "You go professionally, too, Gordon, don't you? And I--I can't go that way. I can go only--what shall I say?--humanly? So I suppose I can't go at all!"
"Certainly not," said Mrs. Ward. "How can you ask such a question?" She was now too disapproving for words. "I can not consent to your going at all, so let that end it."
"But, Mr. Modderwell," said Elizabeth, with a smile for her mother, "we pray, don't we, every Sunday for 'pity upon all prisoners and captives'?"
"That's entirely different," said Modderwell.