"Miss Skelton, how can you expect me to go on acting and mouthing this
Tosh when the Sword of Truth hangs over us?"
Something in her face made him ask a question.
"Did _you_ see anything?" he asked.
"I thought it was because I was rubbing my eyes."
"Then indeed there is a God! And He is watching us now. And all this
about us, this sinful room, this foolish costume, this preposterous
life of blasphemous pretension----!"
He stopped short, with a kind of horror on his face.
With a hopeless gesture he rushed by her. He appeared wild-eyed upon
the landing before his manservant, who was carrying a scuttle of coal
upstairs.
"Brompton," he said, "what are you doing?"
"Coal, sir."
"Put it down, man!" he said. "Are you not an immortal soul? God is
here! As close as my hand! Repent! Turn to Him! The Kingdom of Heaven
is at hand!"