Are you ever nervous ?" Delighted to enter into conversation with her, I answered in a way to lead her to talk about herself, then, seeing she was in a favorable mood for gossip, was on the point of venturing all in a leading question, when she suddenly forestalled me by putting one to me.
"Were you ever the prey of an idea ?" she asked; "one which you could not shake off by any ordinary means, one which clung to you night and day till nothing else seemed real or would rouse the slightest interest?
I mean a religious idea," she stammered with anxious attempt of to hide her real thought.

"One of those doubts which come to you in the full swing of life to--to frighten and unsettle you." "Yes," I answered, as naturally and quietly as I knew how; "I have had such ideas--such doubts." "And were you able to throw them off ?--by your will, I mean." She was leaning forward, her eyes fixed eagerly on mine.

How unexpected the privilege! I felt that in another moment her secret would be mine.
"In time, yes," I smiled back.

"Everything yields to time and persistent conscientious work." "But if you can not wait for time, if you must be relieved at once, can the will be made to suffice, when the day is dark and one is alone and not too busy ?" "The will can do much," I insisted.

"Dark thoughts can be kept down by sheer determination.