One lovely summer evening she had been across the moor a long way, and was returning as the sun went down. A glory of red molten gold was shining in her face, so that she could see nothing in front of her, and was a little startled by a voice greeting her with a respectful good-evening. The same moment she was alongside of the speaker in the blinding veil of the sun. It was Andrew walking home from a village on the other side of the moor. She drew rein, and they went together.
"What has come to you, Mr. Ingram?" she said; "I hear you were at church last Sunday evening!"
"Why should I not be, ma'am?" asked Andrew.
"For the reason that you are not in the way of going."
"There might be good reason for going once, or for going many times, and yet not for going always!"
"We won't begin with quarreling! There are things we shall not agree about!"
"Yes; one or two--for a time, I believe!" returned Andrew.
"What did you think of Mr. Rackstraw's sermon? I suppose you went to hear _him_.'"
"Will you tell me first whether you were satisfied with Mr. Rackstraw's teaching? I know you were there."
"Then I don't see reason for saying anything about it."
"If I am wrong, you ought to try to set me right!"
"The prophet Elisha would have done no good by throwing his salt into the running stream. He cast it, you will remember, into the spring!"
"There is no use in persuading a person to change an opinion."
"Because the man is neither the better nor the worse for it. If you had told me you were distressed to hear a man in authority speak as Mr. Rackstraw spoke concerning a being you loved, I would have tried to comfort you by pointing out how false it was. But if you are content to hear God so represented, why should I seek to convince you of what is valueless to you? Why offer you to drink what your heart is not thirsting after? Would you love God more because you found He was not what you were quite satisfied He should be?"
"You must excuse me. I have said all I will. I can not reason in defense of God. It seems blasphemy to argue that His nature is not such as no honorable man could love in another man."
"If the Bible said so, the Bible would be false. But the Bible does not say so."
"How is it then that it seems to say so?"