“They interest me, also.”  Mr. Guard stood before the ikon, looked long upon it before coming back to the fire and again sitting down.  For a moment he gazed into it as if forgetting where he was, then he leaned back in his chair and turned to me.

“A collection of examples of ecclesiastical art, of religious ideas embodied in objects used for purposes of worship, is interesting—­yes—­but a collection of re-actions against what they fail to represent would be more so, could they be collected.”

“They have been—­haven’t they?  In the lives of those who dare to differ, to break from heritage and tradition, much has been collected and transmitted.  The effect of re-actions is what counts, I suppose.”

“Their inevitability is what people do not seem to understand.”  Leaning forward, he again looked into the fire, his hands between his knees.  “The teachings of Christ having been twisted into a system of theology, and the Church into an organization based on dogma and doctrine, re-action is unescapable.  However, we won’t get on that.”  Again he straightened.  “Was it re-action that brought you to Scarborough Square?  I beg your pardon!  I have no right to ask.  There was something you wished to ask me, I believe.”

For a moment there was silence, broken only by the flames of the fire, which spluttered and flared and made soft, whispering sounds, while on the window-panes the snow, now turning into sleet, tapped as if with tiny fingers, and my heart began to beat queerly.

I did not know how to ask him what I wanted to ask.  There was much he could tell me, much I wished to hear from a man’s standpoint, but how to make him understand was difficult.  He had faced life frankly, knew what was subterfuge, what sincere, and the restrictions of custom and convention no longer handicapped him.  Between sympathy and sentimentality he had found the right distinction, and his judgment and emotions had learned to work together.  My judgment and emotions were yet untrained.

“The girl down-stairs,” I began.  “You and Mrs. Mundy seem to know her.  If she belongs, as I imagine, to the world down there,” my hand made motion behind me, “Mrs. Mundy will think I can do nothing.  But cannot somebody do something?  Must things always go on the same way?”

“No.  They will not always go on the same way.  They will continue so to go, however, until women—­good women—­understand they must chiefly bring about the change.  For centuries women have been cowards, been ignorant of what they should know, been silent when they should speak.  They prefer to be—­”

“White roses!  But white roses do not necessarily live in hot-houses.”  I pushed my chair farther from the fire.  “That is one of the reasons I am here.  I want to know where women fail.”