She started to find that the Bishop’s lady was speaking to her.  Evadne recognized her, for she sat at the next table, and several times she had stood aside to let her pass to her seat.  Something about the solitary, pathetic little figure, the hopeless face and mournful grey eyes, had won the compassion of the good lady, for she was a kindly soul.

“My dear, you have a great sorrow?” she said gently.  “I hope you have the consolations of our holy religion to help you bear it.”

Evadne turned towards her eagerly.  Her husband was the head of the church.  Surely she would know.

“Can you help me to find him?” she asked abruptly.

“Find whom, my dear?  Have you a friend among the passengers?”

“Jesus Christ.”

“Oh!” The Bishop’s lady sat back with the suddenness of the shock, “Are you in earnest, my dear?” she asked with a tinge of severity in her tone.  “This is a very serious question, but, if you really mean it, I will lend you my Prayer Book.”

Evadne smiled drearily.  “Oh, yes, I am terribly in earnest.  My father said I was to make it the business of my life.”

“Oh, ah, yes, to be sure,” said the lady a trifle absently.  “That is very proper.  Christianity should be the great purpose of our life.”

“I do not want Christianity,” said Evadne impatiently, “I want Christ.”

“My dear, you shock me!  The eternal verities of our holy religion must ever be—­”

“Do you believe in him?” asked Evadne, interrupting her.

“Believe in him? whom do you mean?”

“Jesus Christ.”

Aghast, the Bishop’s lady crossed herself and began repeating the Apostles’ Creed.

“That makes him seem so far away,” said Evadne sadly.  “I do not want him in heaven if I have to live upon earth.  Have you found him?” she asked eagerly.  “Are you on intimate terms with him?  Is he your friend?”

The Bishop’s lady gasped for breath.  That she, a member of the Church of the Holy Communion of All Saints should be interrogated in such a fashion as this!  “I think you do not quite understand,” she said coldly.  “I will lend you a treatise on Church Doctrine.  You had better study that.”

“Charlotte,” said her husband when she reached her stateroom, “I have arrived at an important decision this afternoon.  I have finally concluded to take the Socinian Heresy as my theme for the noon lectures.  The subject will admit of elaborate treatment and afford ample scope for scholarship.”

“Heresy!” echoed his wife, who had not yet recovered her equanimity; “why, Bertram, I have just been talking to a young person who asked me if I was on intimate terms with Jesus Christ!”

“Ah, yes,” said the Bishop absently, “the radical tendencies of the present day are to be deplored.  Have you seen that my vestments are in order, Charlotte?  I shall hold Divine service on board to-morrow.”