'"Whosoever will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God."'
'Wouldn't you then be a friend of the world, Pitt?' his mother asked reprovingly.
'I should say,' Mr. Dallas remarked with an amused, indifferent tone,—'I should say that Pitt had been attending a conventicle; only at Oxford that is hardly possible.'
The young man made no answer to either speaker; he remained with his head bent down over the Bible, and a face almost stern in its gravity. Mrs. Dallas presently repeated her question.
'Pitt, would you not be a friend to the world?'
'That is the question, mother,' he said, lifting his face to look at her. 'I thought it right to tell you all this, that you may know just where I stand. Of course I have thought of the question of a profession; but this other comes first, and I feel it ought first to be decided.'
With which utterance the young man rose, put the big Bible in its place, and left the room.
CHAPTER XXIII.
A DEBATE.
The two who were left sat still for a few moments, without speaking.
Mrs. Dallas once again made that gesture of her hand across her brow.