"Young man, don't jest. Tell me truly, do you believe that I am going to be condemned eternally?"
"Certainly, if you do not believe in the Son of God."
"Just what your wife says,—little witch,—and this is your Christianity, your loving-kindness."
"Pardon me, it is not my Christianity."
"If there is one thing in the world that I hate more than another it is a Puritan," she said, shaking with a hastily evoked wrath.
"If there is one thing that I admire it is a Puritan," he said, coolly, "of late it is so much the fashion to berate them. Puritan is a synonym for priggishness and general narrow-mindedness. The people are mad. Do they forget the stern stuff to which they owe their country, their liberties, their very existence? Away with this sugared sweetness of, 'No matter what one's faith is as long as one lives properly.' I say, one's faith is one's life."
"You are quite excited," said his hostess, becoming calm herself.
"It always excites me. New England is burnt over with heresies. I long for the day of awakening, for the wave of enthusiasm that will spread over this country and bring back the people to the faith of their forefathers."
"You are a fanatic."
"I wish I were."