CHAPTER XVI.
Earle smiled. "The answer to that is contained in what I remarked a moment ago," he said. "I wanted truth itself, not my own or anybody's else views or fancies concerning it."
Marion looked at him with a gravity on her face which gave it a new character altogether. "And do you really think that you found this absolute truth in the Catholic faith?" she asked.
"I do not think so—I know it," he answered. "It is there or nowhere. I satisfied myself of that."
"But how did you come to care enough about it to think of satisfying yourself?" she persisted. "That is what puzzles me most. The Catholic faith may be true—I can readily believe it is,—but how did you, a young man with the world all before you, ever come to care whether it were true or not?"
He regarded her silently for a moment before replying. It seemed as if he found it difficult to answer such words as these. At length he said: "Is there any special reason why a young man, even if it were true that he had all the world before him—and it is true in a very limited sense of me,—should not think occasionally of the most important subject in the world, and should not desire to think rightly?"
"Of course there is no reason why he should not," she replied. "Only it seems unnatural. One fancies him thinking of other things. In his place, I should think of other things."
"May I ask what they would be?"
"I am sure you can hardly need to ask. Even if you have no ambition yourself, you must realize its existence; you must know how it makes men desire fame and power and wealth for the sake of the great advantages they bring. In your place, I should think of making a name, of conquering fortune, of enjoying all that the world offers."