Let me tell you, Alf, you cannot wrong or degrade a woman without wronging or degrading yourself." "What is the matter with you, Eugene?
Are you thinking of taking priest's orders ?" "No, Alf," said Eugene, rising and rapidly pacing the floor, "you may defend the system as much as you please, but you cannot deny that the circumstances it creates, and the temptations it affords, are sapping our strength and undermining our character." "That may be true," said Lorraine, somewhat irritably, "but you had better be careful how you air your Northern notions in public." "Why so ?" "Because public opinion is too sensitive to tolerate any such discussions." "And is not that a proof that we are at fault with respect to our institutions ?" "I don't know.

I only know we are living in the midst of a magazine of powder, and it is not safe to enter it with a lighted candle." "Let me proceed with my story," continued Eugene.

"During the long months in which I was convalescing, I was left almost entirely to the companionship of Marie.

In my library I found a Bible, which I began to read from curiosity, but my curiosity deepened into interest when I saw the rapt expression on Marie's face.

I saw in it a loving response to sentiments to which I was a stranger.