“Thank you,” rejoined the baron. “The sentiment is entirely mutual. Which is precisely why I felt an urgency upon me to share these deep matters with you. None of us can tell what the future may hold. These are dangerous times. I fear the world is approaching disaster because of our reckless Nazi leaders. The thought causes me nothing but sadness, but it may be that we will not see one another again, my two friends….”

As he said this, the baron looked first at Thaddeus, then over at Matthew, and in his eyes there could be no mistaking the deep love he felt for both men.

“You are leaving in two days. Marion and I will remain here. Sabina must make her decision, and I know she is praying with both diligence and anguish. These are terrible times for those in whose hearts love dwells.”

He paused again, struggling over the words.

“I pray this conflict will soon be over,” he went on. “But if not, I would never forgive myself had I not spoken very directly to you about the very foundation of my life, of my family’s life, and of all we stand for here at Lebenshaus.”

He paused briefly.

“I’m sure by now you realize I am speaking of our faith, of our perspective as Christians, of how we try to order our home and our life and our attitudes and behavior according to God’s ways. I have been outspoken about my Christian beliefs from the outset of our relationship. We have spoken about many matters of belief together in the two years we have known one another. Though we have not spent as much time together as I might have wished, what we have enjoyed has been rich, and I feel we have come to know one another deeply and with a mutual kinship and respect.”

He stopped, took a sip from his coffee cup, then sat thinking. The other four in the room waited patiently.

“I do not happen to be one who believes,” he continued after a few moments, “that the calling upon a Christian is to convince others that the tenets of the Christian faith are true. There are those who make that the chief aim of their existence. They are what I call Christians of persuasion.