`` Lose she will , '' said Mr. Meredith : emphatically . `` The Idea can not be conquered . France is certainly very wonderful . It seems to me that in her I see the white form of civilization making a determined stand against the black powers of barbarism . I think our whole world realizes this and that is why we all await the issue so breathlessly . It is n't merely the question of a few forts changing hands or a few miles of blood-soaked ground lost and won . '' `` I wonder , '' said Gertrude dreamily , `` if some great blessing , great enough for the price , will be the meed of all our pain ? Is the agony in which the world is shuddering the birth-pang of some wondrous new era ? Or is it merely a futile struggle of ants In the gleam of a million million of suns ? We think very lightly , Mr. Meredith , of a calamity which destroys an ant-hill and half its inhabitants . Does the Power that runs the universe think us of more importance than we think ants ? '' `` You forget , '' said Mr. Meredith , with a flash of his dark eyes , `` that an infinite Power must be infinitely little as well as infinitely great . We are neither , therefore there are things too little as well as too great for us to apprehend . To the infinitely little an ant is of as much importance as a mastodon . We are witnessing the birth-pangs of a new era -- but it will be born a feeble , wailing life like everything else . I am not one of those who expect a new heaven and a new earth as the immediate result of this war . That is not the way God works . But work He does , Miss Oliver , and in the end His purpose will be fulfilled . '' `` Sound and orthodox -- sound and orthodox , '' muttered Susan approvingly in the kitchen . Susan liked to see Miss Oliver sat upon by the minister now and then .
Susan was very fond of her but she thought Miss Oliver liked saying heretical things XXXXX ministers far too well , and deserved an occasional reminder that these matters were quite beyond her province .
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