There ensued a curious silence. The two ladies sat looking at Pitt, each apparently possessed by a kind of troubled dismay; neither ready with an answer. The pause lasted till both of them felt what it implied, and both began to speak at once.
'But, my son'—
'But, Mr. Dallas!'—
'Miss Frere, mamma. Let her speak.' And turning to the young lady with a slight bow, he intimated his willingness to hear her. Miss Frere was nevertheless not very ready.
'Mr. Dallas, do I understand you? Can it be that you mean—I do not know how to put it,—do you mean that you think that everybody, that all of us, and each of us, ought to devote his life to helping and teaching?'
'It can be of no consequence what I think,' he said. 'The question is simply, what is "following Christ"?'
'Being His disciple, I should say.'
'What is that?' he replied quickly. 'I have been studying that very point; and do you know it is said here, and it was said then, "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple"?'
'But what do you mean, Pitt?' his mother asked in indignant consternation.
'What did the Lord mean, mother?' he returned very gravely.