An oval shaft of light, glinting through the
foliage, had struck the pedestal of the Faun and was stealthily
crawling up its polished surface. He looked at the statue. It was still
slumbering in the shade. But a subtle change had spread over the
figure, or was it, he wondered, merely a change in the state of his own
mind, due to what the Count had said? There was energy, now, in those
tense muscles. The slightest touch, he felt, would unseal the
enchantment and cause life to flow through the dull metal.
Mr. van Koppen was slightly ruffled.
"Are you not a little hard on the Puritans?" he asked. "Where would we
have been without them in America?"
"And after all," added the bishop, "they cleared up an infinity of
abuses. They were temperate, at all events! Too temperate in some
matters, I am inclined to think; they did not always allow for human
weakness. They went straight back to the Bible."
The Count shook his head slowly.
"The Bible," he said, "is the most intemperate book I have ever read.
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