“You do not understand, I think,” she quickly returned. “I put every view, every thought, every idea to the test. If good is the result, I know that the thought or idea comes from the source of all good, God. The views I hold are those which I have time and again tested––and some of them have withstood trials which I think you would regard as unusually severe.” Her thought had rested momentarily upon her vivid experience in Banco, the dangers which had menaced her in distant Simití, and the fire through which she had passed in her first hours in Christian America, the land of churches, sects, and creeds.
“H’m!” the worthy doctor mused, regarding the girl first through his spectacles, and then over the tops of them, while his bushy eyebrows moved up and down with such comicality that Carmen could scarcely refrain from laughing. “H’m! quite so. Ah––suppose you relate to me some of the tests to which your views have been subjected.”
“No,” she returned firmly; “those experiences were only states of consciousness, which are now past and gone forever. Why rehearse them? They were human, and so, unreal. Why go back now and give them the appearance of reality?”
“Unreal! H’m––then you do not regard untoward experience as given us by God for the testing of our faith, I take it.”
Carmen turned her head away with a little sigh of weariness. “I think,” she said slowly, “I think we had better not talk about these things, Doctor. You are a preacher. Your views are not mine.”
“Why––ah,” blustered the clergyman, assuming a more paternal air, “we––ah––would not for a moment cause you embarrassment, Miss Carmen! But––in fact, Madam Elwin has––ah––expressed her disapproval of your views––your religious ideals, if I may put it so baldly, and she––that is––the good lady regrets––”
“She wishes to be rid of me, you mean, Doctor?” said the 55 girl, turning and stretching a mental hand to the sinking divine.
“H’m! well, hardly so––ah––so––”
“Doctor,” said the girl calmly, “I know it, and I wish to go. I have been waiting only to see the way open. I do not wish to remain longer in an atmosphere where ignorance and false belief stifle all real progress.”
The doctor turned another look of astonishment upon her. He had forgotten that he had not been talking with one of his own age. The fact suddenly pressed upon him. “How old are you?” he blurted.