is it to be the servant of an iron law, than the slave of a capricious
master who takes a malignant and envious pleasure in destroying the
best!"

"And this, you say, is the final outcome of your thoughts?" asked
Melissa, shaking her head sadly. "Do you not perceive that such an
outbreak of mad despair is simply unworthy of your own wisdom, of which
the end and aim should be a passionless, calm, and immovable moderation?"

"And do they show such moderation," Philip gasped out, "who pour the
poison of misfortune in floods on one tortured heart?"

"Then you can accuse those whose existence you disbelieve in?" retorted
Melissa with angry zeal. "Is this your much-belauded logic? What
becomes of your dogmas, in the face of the first misfortune--dogmas which
enjoin a reserve of decisive judgment, that you may preserve your
equanimity, and not overburden your soul, in addition to the misfortune
itself, with the conviction that something monstrous has befallen you?
I remember how much that pleased me the first time I heard it. For your
own sake--for the sake of us all--cease this foolish raving, and do not
merely call yourself a skeptic--be one; control the passion that is
rending you. For love of me--for love of us all--"

And as she spoke she laid her hand on his shoulder, for he had sat down
again; and although he pushed her away with some petulance, she went on
in a tone of gentle entreaty: "If we are not to be altogether too late in
the field, let us consider the situation calmly. I am but a girl, and
this fresh disaster will fall more hardly on me than on you; for what
would become of me without my father?"