"Why not?"
"Well, we never had a minister in Pleasant Valley like you before."
"Didn't you?"
"I don't believe anybody ever went to those people to preach to them, until you went."
"They had a good deal of that appearance," Mr. Masters assented.
"But," Diana began again after a short pause, "to go back; Basil, you do not care for those people?"
"I think I do," said the minister very quietly.
"I suppose you do!" said Diana, in a sort of admiration. "But how can you?"
"Easy to tell," was the answer. "God made them, and God loves them; I love all that my Father loves. And Christ died for them; and I seek the lost whom my Master came to save. And there is not one of them but has in him the possibility of glory; and I see that possibility, and when I see it, Diana, it seems to me a small thing to give my life, if need be, that it may be realized."
"I am not good enough to be your wife!" said Diana, sinking her head.
And her secret self-abasement was very deep.