She nodded.

“I will talk to her again presently.  Just now she can understand very little of what has happened....  What time shall you be home?”

“Probably not to-night.  We shall sit all night.”

“Yes, dear.  And what shall I tell Mr. Phillips?”

“I will telephone in the morning....  Mabel, do you remember what I told you about the priest?”

“His likeness to the other?”

“Yes.  What do you make of that?”

She smiled.

“I make nothing at all of it.  Why should they not be alike?”

He took a fig from the dish, and swallowed it, and stood up.

“It is only very curious,” he said.  “Now, good-night, my dear.”

III

“Oh, mother,” said Mabel, kneeling by the bed; “cannot you understand what has happened?”

She had tried desperately to tell the old lady of the extraordinary change that had taken place in the world—­and without success.  It seemed to her that some great issue depended on it; that it would be piteous if the old woman went out into the dark unconscious of what had come.  It was as if a Christian knelt by the death-bed of a Jew on the first Easter Monday.  But the old lady lay in her bed, terrified but obdurate.

“Mother,” said the girl, “let me tell you again.  Do you not understand that all which Jesus Christ promised has come true, though in another way?  The reign of God has really begun; but we know now who God is.  You said just now you wanted the Forgiveness of Sins; well, you have that; we all have it, because there is no such thing as sin.  There is only Crime.  And then Communion.  You used to believe that that made you a partaker of God; well, we are all partakers of God, because we are human beings.  Don’t you see that Christianity is only one way of saying all that?  I dare say it was the only way, for a time; but that is all over now.  Oh! and how much better this is!  It is true—­true.  You can see it to be true!”

She paused a moment, forcing herself to look at that piteous old face, the flushed wrinkled cheeks, the writhing knotted hands on the coverlet.

“Look how Christianity has failed—­how it has divided people; think of all the cruelties—­the Inquisition, the Religious Wars; the separations between husband and wife and parents and children—­the disobedience to the State, the treasons.  Oh! you cannot believe that these were right.  What kind of a God would that be!  And then Hell; how could you ever have believed in that?...  Oh! mother, don’t believe anything so frightful....  Don’t you understand that that God has gone—­that He never existed at all—­that it was all a hideous nightmare; and that now we all know at last what the truth is....  Mother! think of what happened last night—­how He came—­the Man of whom you were so frightened.  I told you what He was like—­so quiet and strong—­how every one was silent—­of the—­the extraordinary atmosphere, and how six millions of people saw Him.  And think what He has done—­how He has healed all the old wounds—­how the whole world is at peace at last—­and of what is going to happen.  Oh! mother, give up those horrible old lies; give them up; be brave.”