He broke off, and for a moment seemed absorbed in recollections.

“You are speaking, I suppose, of some rule of life, some kind of novitiate to which you had to submit yourself,” said Mr. Harland—­ “Or was it merely a course of study?”

“In one sense it was a sort of novitiate or probation,” answered Santoris, slowly, with the far-away, musing look still in his eyes—­ “In another it was, as you put it, ‘merely’ a course of study.  Merely!  It was a course of study in which every nerve, every muscle, every sinew was tested to its utmost strength—­and in which a combat between the spiritual and material was fiercely fought till the one could master the other so absolutely as to hold it in perfect subjection.  Well!  I came out of the trial fairly well—­strong enough at any rate to stand alone—­as I have done ever since.”

“And to what did your severe ordeal lead?” asked Dr. Brayle, who by this time appeared interested, though still wearing his incredulous, half-sneering air—­“To anything which you could not have gained just as easily without it?”

Santoris looked straight at him.  His keen eyes glowed as though some bright fire of the soul had leaped into them.

“In the first place,” he answered—­“it led me to power!  Power,—­not only over myself but over all things small and great that surround or concern my being.  I think you will admit that if a man takes up any line of business, it is necessary for him to understand all its technical methods and practical details.  My business was and is Life!—­the one thing that humanity never studies, and therefore fails to master.”

Mr. Harland looked up.

“Life is mysterious and inexplicable,” he said—­“We cannot tell why we live.  No one can fathom that mystery.  We are Here through no conscious desire of our own,—­and again we are not here just as we have learned to accommodate ourselves to the fact of being Anywhere!”

“True!” answered Santoris—­“But to understand the ‘why’ of life we must first of all realise that its origin Is Love.  Love creates life because it must; even agnostics, when pushed to the wall in argument grant that some mysterious and mighty Force is at the back of creation,—­a Force which is both intelligent and beneficent.  The trite saying ‘God is Love’ is true enough, but it is quite as true to say ‘Love is God.’  The commencement of universes, solar systems and worlds is the desire of Love to express Itself.  No more and no less than this.  From desire springs action,—­from action life.  It only remains for each living unit to bring itself into harmonious union with this one fundamental law of the whole cosmos,—­the expression and action of Love which is based, as naturally it must be, on a dual entity.”

“What do you mean by that?” asked Dr. Brayle.