“By bearing pain, you mean?”
“Yes; by dying. Well, what they call the Incarnation is really the point. Everything else flows from that. And, once a man believes that, I must confess that all the rest follows—even down to scapulars and holy water.”
“Mr. Francis, I don’t understand a word you’re saying.”
He smiled indulgently.
“Of course not,” he said; “it is all incredible nonsense. But, you know, I did really believe it all once.”
“But it’s unreasonable,” she said.
He made a little demurring sound.
“Yes,” he said, “in one sense, of course it is—utterly unreasonable. But in another sense—-”
She leaned forward suddenly, and he could catch the glint of her eyes beneath her white veil.
“Ah!” she said, almost breathlessly. “That is what I want to hear. Now, tell me how they justify it.”