even as he did the old Prophets."

"I love to believe so," said Barbara, simply.

"And," continued Mr. Sumner, "this does not lessen any man, but rather
makes him greater. Surely God's working through him makes him truly
grander than the mere work itself ever could."

As Malcom, Barbara, and Bettina drove homeward, their talk took a
serious turn. Malcom was deeply impressed by his uncle's last words,
which he had overheard, when taken into connection with all the
preceding thoughts about Michael Angelo. Finally he asked:--

"And then what can a man do? What did Michael Angelo, himself, do if, as
uncle suggested, God wrought through him?"

"Oh, I know!" exclaimed Bettina, eagerly. "I have heard papa and mamma
talk about the same thing more than once, only of course Michael Angelo
was not their subject. In the first place, he must have realized that
God sent him into the world to do something, and also that He had not
left him alone, but was with him. Papa always says that to realize this
begins everything that is good."

"Yes," interrupted Barbara. "He did feel this. Don't you remember that
he wrote in one of his letters that we were reading in that library book
the other day, 'Make no intimacies with any one but the Almighty alone'?
I was particularly struck by it, because just before I read it, I was
thinking what a lonely man he was."

"Yes, dear, I remember. And in the next place," continued Bettina, "papa