Basil was silent, and Diana looked down at the volume in her hand.
"Won't you go on, Mrs. Masters?" said her host. "What do you find for me there?"
"I was looking for my quotation," said Diana; "I had not got it quite right."
"How is it?"
"Here is a list of the luxuries in which Babylon traded:—'The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.'"
"Sounds for all the world like an inventory of the things in my house," said Mr. Brandt. "Pray what of all that? Don't you like all those things?"
"'—For in one hour so great riches is come to nought.'"
"But what harm in these things, or most of them, Mrs. Masters?"
Diana glanced up at Basil and did not answer. He answered.
"No harm—so long as business and the fruits of business are kept within the line we were speaking of; so long as all is for God and to God. If it is not for him, it is for the 'world.'"