'What you are doing, I suppose,' said Hazel, with a little undefined twinge that came much nearer jealousy than she guessed.
'That is very plain, and perfectly simple, isn't it?'
'It sounds so.'—And glancing furtively at the bright, clear face, she added to herself Dr. Maryland's old words: 'Love likes her bonds!'—That was plain too.
'Then another question. If I belong to this One whom I love, does not all that I have belong to him too?'
'But it was not I who said you were ruining yourself,' said the girl in her quick way. 'I liked it.'
'Did you?' said he, with one of his flashes of eye. 'But I am giving you a lesson to study. I am not justifying myself. Answer my question. Does not all I have belong to that One, who loves me and whom I love?'
She bowed her head in assent. Somehow the words hurt her.
'So that, whatever I do, I cannot be said to give him anything? It is all his already. I am asking you a business question. I want you to answer just as it appears to you.'
'How can it appear but in one way?' said Hazel. 'That must be true, of course.'
'Very well. That is clear. Now suppose further that my Lord has left me special directions about what he wants done to these people I spoke of—am I not to take the directions exactly as they stand, without clipping?'