Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 1 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/314

 myself, and shocked at the knowledge of evil displayed in my very mistakes."

"Well, then," said Rowland, "I'll ask no questions. But, at a venture, I promise you to catch you some day in the act of doing something very good."

"Are you too trying to flatter me? I thought you and I had fallen from the first into rather a truth-speaking vein."

"Oh, I've not given it up," said Rowland; and he determined, since he had the credit of homely directness, to push his advantage further. The opportunity seemed excellent. But while he was hesitating how to begin, his companion said, bending forward and clasping her hands in her lap: "Please tell me about your faith."

"My faith—?"

"The faith you said just now you have."

"Tell you about it?" Rowland looked cold. "Never in the world!"

She flushed a little. "Is it such a mighty mystery it can't be put into words or communicated to my inferior mind?"

"Such things—one's way of meeting, morally, the mystery of the universe—lie very deep down, at the bottom of one's trunk. One can't always put one's hand on them in a moment."

"Then of what use are they?" Christina asked; "a folded squashed garment that one never wears? Deep convictions, it seems to me," she said, "should be eloquent and aggressive. They should wish to make converts, to persuade and illumine, to take possession!"

"Is n't it true, rather, that the deeper they are the 280