"Then you think I could be of use?"
She looked at him, silent for a moment. "I think you have a mind capable of taking fire, when it learns the facts."
"Facts only deaden some people," said he.
"Yes; that is what crushes us here. We have such mountains of facts to deal with."
"And you want fire to come down from those mountains and consume me?"
She nodded prophetically.
"I know you wouldn't run away."
"I am trying to feel the call," said Max a little skeptically. And in truth he was of divided mind, not because he had any doubt of his ability, but because the temptation to insincerity was so strong. This would give him the very opportunity he sought—through a vale of misery he beheld the way to his own Promised Land; but was it fair that he should take advantage of it without a heart of pity and conviction? This Prince of ours rather prided himself on his conscientious scruples.
"Will you tell me from the beginning," he said at last, "what put this thought into your mind? I seem to be getting it only by fragments."
"Three days ago," she answered, "I heard my father talking with others of the projected Commission. They were dissatisfied at the Church not being sufficiently represented—so insufficiently, indeed, that they took it as an intentional slight, part of the Government's policy for depriving the Bishops of all standing. It was held that further representation was imperative."