"I was only thinking, Ditto. But it seems to me so very strange that people should be worse now than when they were heathen Saxons."
"People are a mixture now, you must remember. The good part are a great deal better, and I suppose the bad part are a great deal worse."
"Worse than the heathen!" cried Flora.
"Well, judge for yourself. But darkness in the midst of light is always the blackest, and not only by contrast either."
"If you think people are so awful, I should think you would go to work and preach to them," said Esther.
"I will," said Meredith calmly.
"Then what will you do with Meadow Park?"
"Oh, he proposes to turn that into an hospital."
"Flora is romancing a little," said her brother. "There are no infirmaries put up yet. How sweet this place is! Do you smell the fir trees and pines? The air is a spice-box."