"AGATHA SUNDERBUND."
And then scrawled along the margin of the last sheet:

"If, when you know--a telegram. Even if you cannot say so
much as 'Agreed,' still such a word as 'Favourable.' I just hang

over the Void until I hear.
"AGATHA S."

A letter demanding enormousdeliberation. She argued closely in
spite of her italics. It had never dawned upon the bishop before

how light is the servitude of the disciple in comparison with the
servitude of the master. In many ways this proposal repelled and

troubled him, in many ways it attracted him. And the argument of
his clear obligation to accept her co-operation gripped him; it

was a good argument.
And besides it worked in very conveniently with certain other

difficulties that perplexed him.
(4)

The bishop became aware that Eleanor was returning to him
across the sands. She had made an end to her paddling, she had

put on her shoes and stockings and become once more the grave and
responsible young woman who had been taking care of him since his

flight from Princhester. He replaced the two letters in his
pocket, and sat ready to smile as she drew near; he admired her

open brow, the toss of her hair, and the poise of her head upon
her neck. It was good to note that her hard reading at Cambridge

hadn't bent her shoulders in the least....
"Well, old Dad! " she said as she drew near. "You've got back a

colour."
"I've got back everything. It's time I returned to

Princhester."
"Not in this weather. Not for a day or so." She flung herself

at his feet. "Consider your overworked little daughter. Oh,how
good this is!"

"No," said the bishop in a grave tone that made her look up
into his face. "I must go hack."

He met her clear gaze. "What do you think of all this business,
Eleanor?" he asked abruptly. "Do you think I had a sort of fit in

the cathedral?"
He winced as he asked the question.

"Daddy," she said, after a little pause; "the things you said
and did that afternoon were the noblest you ever did in your

life. I wish I had been there. It must have been splendid to be
there. I've not told you before--I've been dying to.... I'd

promised not to say a word--not to remind you. I promised the
doctor. But now you ask me, now you are well again, I can tell

you. Kitty Kingdom has told me all about it, how it felt. It was
like light and order coming into a hopeless dark muddle. What you

said was like what we have all been trying to think--I mean all
of us young people. Suddenly it was all clear."

She stopped short. She was breathless with the excitement of
her confession.

Her father too remained silent for a little while. He was
reminded of his weakness; he was, he perceived, still a little

hysterical. He felt that he might weep at her youthfulenthusiasm
if he did not restrain himself.

I'm glad," he said, and patted her shoulder. "I'm glad, Norah."
She looked away from him out across the lank brown sands and

water pools to the sea. "It was what we have all been feeling our
way towards, the absolute simplification of religion, the

absolute simplification of politics and social duty; just God,
just God the King."

"But should I have said that--in the cathedral?"
She felt no scruples. "You had to," she said.

"But now think what it means," he said. "I must leave the
church."

"As a man strips off his coat for a fight."
"That doesn't dismay you?"

She shook her head, and smiled confidently to sea and sky.
"I'm glad if you're with me," he said. "Sometimes--I think--

I'm not a very self-reliant man."
"You'll have all the world with you," she was convinced, "in a

little time."
"Perhaps rather a longer time than you think, Norah. In the

meantime--"
She turned to him once more.

"In the meantime there are a great many things to consider.
Young people, they say, never think of the transport that is

needed to win a battle. I have it in my mind that I should leave
the church. But I can't just walk out into the marketplace and

begin preaching" target="_blank" title="n.说教 a.说教的">preaching there. I see the family furniture being carried
out of the palace and put into vans. It has to go somewhere...."

"I suppose you will go to London."
"Possibly. In fact certainly. I have a plan. Or at least an

opportunity.... But that isn't what I have most in mind. These
things are not done without emotion and a considerable strain

upon one's personal relationships. I do not think this--I do
not think your mother sees things as we do."

"She will," said young enthusiasm, "when she understands."
"I wish she did. But I have been unlucky in the circumstances

of my explanations to her. And of course you understand all this
means risks--poverty perhaps--going without things--travel,

opportunity, nice possessions--for all of us. A loss of
position too. All this sort of thing," he stuck out a gaitered

calf and smiled, "will have to go. People, some of them, may be
disasagreeable to us...."

"After all, Daddy," she said, smiling, "it isn't so bad as the
cross and the lions and burning pitch. And you have the Truth."

"You do believe--?" He left his sentenceunfinished.
She nodded, her face aglow. "We know you have the Truth."

"Of course in my own mind now it is very clear. I had a kind of
illumination...." He would have tried to tell her of his vision,

and he was too shy. "It came to me suddenly that the whole world
was in confusion because men followed after a thousand different

immediate aims, when really it was quite easy, if only one could
be simple it was quite easy, to show that nearly all men could

only be fully satisfied and made happy in themselves by one
single aim, which was also the aim that would make the whole

world one great order, and that aim was to make God King of one's
heart and the whole world. I saw that all this world, except for

a few base monstrous spirits, was sufferinghideous things
because of this war, and before the war it was full of folly,

waste, social injustice and suspicion for the same reason,
because it had not realized the kingship of God. And that is so

simple; the essence of God is simplicity. The sin of this war
lies with men like myself, men who set up to tell people about

God, more than it lies with any other class--"
"Kings?" she interjected. "Diplomatists? Finance?"

"Yes. Those men could only work mischief in the world because
the priests and teachers let them. All things human lie at last

at the door of the priest and teacher. Who differentiate, who
qualify and complicate, who make mean unnecessary elaborations,

and so divide mankind. If it were not for the weakness and
wickedness of the priests, every one would know and understand

God. Every one who was modest enough not to set up for particular
knowledge. Men disputed whether God is Finite or Infinite,

whether he has a triple or a single aspect. How should they know?
All we need to know is the face he turns to us. They impose their