'Well, mother, I am not talking to you; I am attacking Miss Frere. I can talk to her on even terms. Miss Frere, I want to know what you understand by obeying, when we are speaking of the demands of the Bible?'
'Obeying? I understand just what I mean by it anywhere.'
'Obeying what?'
'Why, obeying God, of course.'
'Of course! But how do we know what His commands are?'
'By the words—how else?' she asked, looking at him. He was in earnest, for some reason, she saw, and she forbore from the light words with which at another time she would have given a turn to the subject.
'Then you think, distinctly, that we ought to obey the words of the
Bible?'
'Ye-s,' she said, wondering what was coming.
'All the words?'
'Yes, I suppose so. All the words, according to their real meaning.'