If all parsons had preached about it for the last fifteen years as Mr.Headley did last Sunday, if they had told people plainly that, if the cholera was God's judgment at all, it was His judgment of the sin of dirt, and that the repentance which He required was to wash and be clean in literal earnest, the cholera would be impossible in England by now." "Oh, Mr.Thurnall: but is it not God's doing?
and can we stop His hand ?" "I know nothing about that, Miss Harvey.

I only know that wheresoever cholera breaks out, it is some one's fault; and if deaths occur, some one ought to be tried for manslaughter--I had almost said murder, and transported for life." "Someone?
Who ?" "That will be settled in the next generation, when men have common sense enough to make laws for the preservation of their own lives, against the dirt, and covetousness, and idleness, of a set of human hogs." Grace was silent for awhile.
"But can nothing be done to keep it off now?
Must it come ?" "I believe it must.

Still one may do enough to save many lives in the meanwhile." "Enough to save many lives--lives ?--immortal souls, too! Oh, what could I do ?" "A great deal, Miss Harvey," said Tom, across whom the recollection of Grace's influence flashed for the first time.

What a help she might be to him! And he talked on and on to her, and found that she entered into his plans with all her wild enthusiasm, but also with sound practical common sense; and Tom began to respect her intellect as well as her heart.
At last, however, she faltered-- "Oh, if I could but believe all this! Is it not fighting against God ?" "I do not know what sort of God yours is, Miss Harvey.

I believe in some One who made all that!" and he pointed round him to the glorious woods and glorious sky; "I should have fancied from your speech to that poor girl, that you believed in Him also.