"Which will end, of course, in his wanting to know all, providing you have the patience to wait", laughed Kate.
"That is a foregone conclusion. I can wait, and I will," said Grace. "Besides," she continued more soberly, "I must consider Leon's rights. He should not be forced to a conclusion simply because I hold it. A hot-bed growth, produced by whatever means, will not bear the hardy, healthy bloom of a natural development. He may be slow but he must be true."
"There Grace, you have touched the keynote," exclaimed Mrs. Hayden warmly. "It is freedom people need, freedom to think and act the highest, for everybody has a highest."
"Yes, if they can only keep the channels open for the inspiration of the highest to come to them or work through them," remarked Kate with a gesture of doubt.
"What better way is there to give freedom or open the channel, than to destroy prejudice, put away antagonism and—"
"Either in yourself or others," interposed Grace, "for to hold prejudice or to believe in evil is always an obstruction."
"After all, it all hinges upon the non-resistance of evil," said Kate.
"Yes, one of the first laws of the beautiful Christlife, and yet one of the very last to be practiced in my experience. I tell you girls, it is the lesson of non-resistance we most need." Mrs. Hayden spoke earnestly as she always did, and her words carried weight.
"Go on, Mrs. Hayden. If I'm asleep anywhere, I wish you would wake me up," cried Kate, drawing the hassock upon which she sat, close up to the elder lady, and putting one hand in her friend's lap, as she waited expectantly for the answer.
"Well dear, I'm only talking on general principles, and what I have discovered in myself—"