“My father to-day is worth a million dollars, a large percentage of it having been made in his present business.  He is prominent both in social and business circles, and up to the present his ability has never been questioned.  To-day he has changed all this as far as it is possible to change it in the short period of a week.  He is making arrangements to transact his business on what he calls a ‘religious basis,’ which means that he intends to transact worldly affairs by heavenly methods, and it does not take much intelligence to see where he will terminate.  He will be a bankrupt in five years, if he isn’t sooner, for no fortune in the world would float such an enterprise.  Now, I can’t see this go on without making an effort to stop it, but as I have little or no influence with him myself, I have come to Miss Marvin to ask her to help me.”

“What do you wish my daughter to do?” Mrs. Marvin asked the question with a little amusement.

“I hardly know,” was his honest answer, “but if she could just induce him to think that God did not expect such a sacrifice and that it was only necessary to do good in moderation, it might act as a restraint on his wholesale generosity, put a brake, so to speak, on his downward course to failure.”

“But I think it an upward course to victory!” said Faith with enthusiasm.  “And you have no idea how I honor your father for taking it!  Just think, Mr. Denton, what good his money can do!  Why, it is a duty which he owes by right to God, for who else gave him the ability to make all this money?”

“Do you think God gave it to him?” asked Mr. Denton, quickly.  “Well, I should have said that his most successful methods were invented by the devil!”

“Then it is time to put his ill-gotten wealth to good account!  I am astonished, Mr. Denton, that you should wish him to retain it!”

Faith’s eyes were fairly blazing now, but the look of admiration only deepened upon young Denton’s features.

There was a cry from little Dick in the kitchen just then, and Mrs. Marvin rose hastily and excused herself to go to him.

“Miss Marvin,” urged the young man, “don’t be harsh in your judgment, please!  Remember I have been used to luxury all my life.  My mother has been used to it—­we cannot bear to lose it.”

He bent toward the young girl as he said the words, and as Faith saw the eagerness in his face, a great wave of pity surged up within her.

He was thoughtless, even wicked, but he was not altogether to blame.  The very luxury that he craved was responsible for it.

“I would like to help you if I could,” she said very gently, “but you surely would not have me go against my own conscience.”

“No, I don’t know that I would,” said young Denton slowly, “for if you did you would not be what you are just now, the embodiment of all that is best and sweetest in woman.”

CHAPTER XXXI.