But Gorgo interrupted him.  “All this,” she said, “does not alter the fact that such crimes are just as possible and as frequent with you, as with those whom I am expected to give up, and who. . .”

“But it is not merely on account of their ill deeds that you are giving them up, Gorgo,” Constantine broke in.  “Confess, dear girl, that your wrath makes you unjust to yourself and your own heart.  It was not out of aversion for the ruthless and base adherents of the old gods but—­as I hope and believe—­out of love for me that you consented to adopt my faith—­our faith.”

“True, true,” she exclaimed, coloring as she remembered the doubts Dada had cast on the truth of her love.

“True, out of love for you—­love of Love and of peace, I consented to become a Christian.  But with regard to the deeds committed by your followers, tell me yourself—­and I appeal to you reverend Father—­what inspired them:  Love or Hate.”

“Hate!” said Constantine gloomily; and Eusebius added sorrowfully

“In these dark days our Faith is seen under an aspect that by no means fairly represents its true nature, noble lady; trust my words!  Have you not yourself seen, even in your short life, that what is highest and greatest can in its excess, be all that is most hideous?  A noble pride, if not kept within bounds, becomes overweening ambition; the lovely grace of humility degenerates into an indolent sacrifice of opinion and will; high-hearted enterprise into a mad chase after fortune, in which we ride down everything that comes in the way of success.  What is nobler than a mother’s love, but when she fights for her child she becomes a raving Megaera.  In the same way the Faith—­the consoler of hearts—­turns to a raging wild-beast when it stoops to become religious partisanship.  If you would really understand Christianity you must look neither down to the deluded masses, and those ambitious worldlings who only use it as a means to an end by inflaming their baser passions, nor up to the throne, where power translates the impulse of a disastrous moment into sinister deeds.  If you want to know what true and pure Christianity is, look into our homes, look at the family life of our fellow believers.  I know them well, for my humble functions lead me into daily and hourly intercourse with them.  Look to them if you purpose to give your hand to a Christian and make your home with him.  There, my child, you will see all the blessings of the Saviour’s teaching, love and soberness, pitifulness to the poor and a real heart-felt eagerness to forgive injuries.  I have seen a Christian bestow his last crust on his hapless foe, on the enemy of his house, on the Heathen or the Jew, because they, too, are men, because our neighbor’s woes should be as our own—­I have seen them taken in and cherished as though they were fellow-Christians.—­There you will find a striving after all that is good, a never-fading hope in better days to come, even under