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to her; she heretic and atheist as she was had as much share in the
ownership as the highest in the land. She had her own peculiar
nook over by the encyclopedias, and, being always an early comer,
seldom failed to secure her own particular chair and desk.
On this morning she took her place, as she had done hundreds of
times before, and was soon hard at work. She was finishing her
last paper on Livingstone when a book she had ordered was deposited
on her desk by one of the noiseless attendants. She wanted it to
verify one or two dates, and she half thought she would try to hunt
up Charles Osmond's anecdote. In order to write her series of
papers, she had been obliged to study the character of the great
explorer pretty thoroughly. She had always been able to see the
nobility even of those differing most widely from herself in point
of creed, and the great beauty of Livingstone's character had
impressed her very much. Today she happened to open on an entry in
his journal which seemed particularly characteristic of the man.
He was in great danger from the hostile tribes at the union of the
Zambesi and Loangwa, and there was something about his spontaneous
utterance which appealed very strongly to Erica.
Felt much turmoil of spirit in view of having all my plans for the
welfare of this great region and teeming population knocked on the
head by savages tomorrow. But I read that Jesus came and said:
'All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth. Go ye
therefore and teach all nations, and lo! I am with you always, even
unto the end of the world.' It is the word of a gentleman of the
most sacred and strictest honor, and there's an end on't. I will
not cross furtively by night as I intended . . . Nay, verily, I
shall take observations for latitude and longitude tonight, though
they may be the last.
The courage, the daring, the perseverance, the intense faith of the
man shone out in these sentences. Was it indeed a delusion, such
practical faith as that?
Blackness of darkness seemed to hem her in. She struggled through
it once more by the one gleam of certainty which had come to her in
the past year. Truth must be selfrevealing. Sooner or later, if
she were honest, if she did not shut her mind deliberately up with
the assurance You have thought out these matters fully and fairly;
enough! Let us now rest content and if she were indeed a true
Freethinker, she MUST know. And even as that conviction returned
to her the words half quaint, half pathetic, came to her mind: It
is the word of a gentleman of the most sacred and strictest honor,

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