Had any one the right to look out so dolefully upon such a day and such a scene of simple happiness as this?
So I took my whistle from my lips and asked: "Is God dead ?" I shall never forget the indescribable look of horror and astonishment that swept over the young man's face.
"What do you mean, sir ?" he asked with an air of stern authority which surprised me.

His calling for the moment lifted him above himself: it was the Church which spoke.
I was on my feet in an instant, regretting the pain I had given him; and yet it seemed worth while now, having made my inadvertent remark, to show him frankly what lay in my mind.

Such things sometimes help men.
"I meant no offence, sir," I said, "and I apologize for my flummery, but when I saw you coming up the hill, looking so gloomy and disconsolate on this bright day, as though you disapproved of God's world, the question slipped out before I knew it." My words evidently struck deep down into some disturbed inner consciousness, for he asked--and his words seemed to slip out before he thought: "Is THAT the way I impressed you ?" I found my heart going out strongly toward him.

"Here," I thought to myself, "is a man in trouble." I took a good long look at him.

He still a young man, though worn-looking--and sad as I now saw it, rather than gloomy--with the sensitive lips and the unworldly look one sees sometimes in the faces of saints.