Even doubt had for him its pleasure, like a kind of new game. These deep and gentle waves of opinion, transitions from Christianity to Paganism, lulled his soul rather than distressed it.
One evening Myrrha fell asleep before the open window. On awakening, she said to Juventinus with a bright smile—
"I've had a strange dream...."
"What was it?"
"I don't remember. But it was happy. Do you think that the whole world will gain salvation?"
"All the righteous; sinners will be punished."
"Righteous? sinners?... That is not my idea," answered Myrrha, still smiling, as if she was trying to remember the dream. "Do you know, Juventinus, that all, all shall be saved, and that God will not suffer one to be lost!"
"So the great master Origen believed. He used to say, 'My Saviour cannot rejoice so long as I am in iniquity.' But that is a heresy...."
Myrrha, not listening, went on—
"Yes! yes! that must be so. I understand it at last. All shall be saved, to the very last. God will not allow one of His creatures to perish."