"Love hasn't any end, dear, any more than it has any beginning. And so my lesson hasn't any end, either."
"I know what you are going to say, but that isn't real love. That which can end has never been,--all the real things in existence are eternal."
"But they--the people that--well, you know, they thought that it was love--didn't they?"
"Yes, dear, and little children think that there are bears in dark closets, and ever so many people think that money buys happiness. The world is full of lies, Lassie, but if one puts the test to them they all fade away. You don't understand yet--but wait."
"But you are not ready to understand yet."
"But I am ready, I will learn to be ready."
"Yes, and I'm going to teach you. But I have to go slowly because I have to hunt for the words. You are such a little thing--such a baby--to be trusted with life; because you see most people never live--they just exist. They are only a few steps up on the staircase, and when they are dragged or pushed above the place that they are in by nature, they are apt to be dizzy. I want to teach you life, Lassie; but I don't want to make you dizzy." She paused, and a whimsical little smile danced across her face; "and besides, dear, we must get undressed. It is after ten o'clock."
"Just a minute more, Alva; it seems as if I cannot break off right here. And I won't be dizzy. I know that whatever you think and do must be right and best. I want to learn to think just as you do. I want to be told how you learned. I always knew you were so very good, and truly, dear, I wouldn't have been surprised if you'd chosen to marry a missionary or to go to that island where the lepers are--not after the first minute, you know; it would have been just like you."
"Oh, no, Lassie, it wouldn't have been like me at all. For ever so many reasons. My first duty in life--the duty that comes before every other--is to my father and mother. No claim could be strong enough to justify my leaving them; and then, besides, I'm not a Christian, except in the sense that I believe with Christ, and that isn't enough for any mission or any leper nowadays."
There was a little pause; then Lassie said: "But you are going to leave your father and mother now, aren't you?"
