'That is a piece of your innocence. A great many people get along quite comfortably without doing any thinking at all.'
'One might as well be a squash,' said Esther gravely. 'I don't see how they can live so.'
'I don't know why, I am sure. It's their nature, I suppose.'
'You keep a fire going anywhere, and it will burn up what is next to it.'
'So far, it is. What were you thinking about, Queen Esther?'
'I had been wanting to ask you about it, Pitt,' the girl said, a little with the air of one who is rousing herself up to give a confidence. 'I was looking for something and I did not know where to find it.'
'I remembered, mamma said people could always find comfort in the Bible; but I did not know how to look for it.'
'Comfort, Queen Esther!' said Pitt, rousing himself now; 'you were not in want of that article, were you?'
'After you were gone, you know--I hadn't anybody left. And oh, Pitt, are you going to--England?'
'One thing at a time. Tell me about this extraordinary want of comfort, at twelve years old. That is improper, Queen Esther!'
'Why?' she said, casting up to him a pair of such wistful, sensitive, beautiful eyes, that the young man was almost startled.
'People at your age ought to have comfort enough to give away to other people.'
'I shouldn't think they could, always,' said Esther quaintly.
Esther looked down, a little uneasily. She felt that Pitt ought to have known. And he did know; however, he thought it advisable to have things brought out into the full light and put into form; hoping they might so be easier dealt with. Esther's next words were hardly consecutive, although perfectly intelligible.
'I know, of course, you cannot stay here always.'
'Of course. But then I shall always be coming back.'
Esther sighed. She was thinking that the absences were long and the times of being at home short; but what was the use of talking about it? That lesson, that words do not change the inevitable, she had already learned. Pitt was concerned.
'Where did you say your highness went to look for comfort?'
'In the Bible. Oh, yes, that was what I wanted your help about. I did not know how to look; and papa said he didn't; or I don't know if he _said_ exactly that, but it came to the same thing. And then I asked Barker.'