secretly watched by a spy. What monstrous inconsistency! Can anybody
believe it? Can anybody account for it?"

"I think I can account for it, Iris, if you will let me make the
attempt. You are mistaken to begin with."

"How am I mistaken?"

"You shall see. There is no such creature as a perfectly consistent
human being on the face of the earth--and, strange as it may seem to
you, the human beings themselves are not aware of it. The reason for
this curious state of things is not far to seek. How can people who are
ignorant--as we see every day--of their own characters be capable of
correctly estimating the characters of others? Even the influence of
their religion fails to open their eyes to the truth. In the Prayer
which is the most precious possession of Christendom, their lips repeat
the entreaty that they may not be led into temptation--but their minds
fail to draw the inference. If that pathetic petition means anything,
it means that virtuous men and women are capable of becoming vicious
men and women, if a powerful temptation puts them to the test. Every
Sunday, devout members of the congregation in church--models of
excellence in their own estimation, and in the estimation of their
neighbours--declare that they have done those things which they ought
not to have done, and that there is no health in them. Will you believe
that they are encouraged by their Prayer-books to present this sad
exposure of the frailty of their own admirable characters? How
inconsistent--and yet how entirely true! Lord Harry, as you rightly
say, behaved nobly in trying to save my dear lost brother. He ought, as
you think, and as other people think, to be consistently noble, after
that, in all his thoughts and actions, to the end of his life. Suppose