"My future! That's God's work to plan—not yours."
"I know it is. But in one of these conversations I held with your wife, which have shocked this low-minded rascal, she said a fine thing to me, Dan. She said, 'All good things come from my man's God. You can't have no good without His hand be in it. And men and women are His messengers to carry the goodness of God up and down in the world and show it.'"
"That's true enough. Nothing new, surely?"
"It was new to me. If there's a God, Daniel, He is a good God. I'll grant you so much. And if good comes to any man, 'tis his God that sends it. I suppose you believe that?"
"Where else can good come from? Man's heart don't imagine it. Man's heart don't breed it."
"Then you're answered, for into my heart has long since come the wish to do you good. I desire it, and I am thankful that I can perform it. I wish you to have power, because you understand how to use power wisely; and content, because you are the only man I ever met who understood that content is higher than happiness."
"You've done all you could, and I have thanked you."
"And thanked your God, I warrant?"
"Yes—Him first."
"It's good to thank Him, I suppose?"