f
of martyrs and was prepared to stand by his faith at the cost of all
things.

The silence in the room lasted. Her feeling for him was so much deeper
than all this--so centred, not in what his faith was to her but in what
HE was to her, that she did not trust herself to speak. He was not on
trial in these matters in the least: without his knowing it, he had
been on trial in many other ways for a long time.

He misunderstood her silence, read wrongly her expression which was
obeying with some severity the need she felt to conceal what she had no
right to show.

"Ah, well! Ah, well!" he cried piteously, rising slowly.

When she saw his face a moment later across the room as he turned, it
was the face she had first seen in the dark street. It had stopped her
singing then; it drew an immediate response from her now. She crossed
over to him and took one of his hands in both of hers. Her cheeks were
flushed, her voice trembled.

"I am not your judge," she said, "and in all this there is only one
thing that is too sad, too awful, for me to accept. I am sorry you
should have been misled into believing that the Christian religion is
nothing more than one of the religions of the world, and Christ merely
one of its religious teachers. I wish with all my strength you believed
as you once believed, that the Bible is a direct Revelation from God,
making known to us, beyond all doubt, the Resurrection of the dead, the
Immortality of the Soul, in a better world than this, and the presence
with us of a Father who knows our wants, pities our weakness, and
answers our prayers. But I believe you will one day regain your faith:
you will come back to the Church."

He shook his head.

"Don't be deceived," he said.

"Men, great men, have said that before and they have come back. I am a
woman, and these questions never trouble us; but is it not a common
occurrence that men who think deeply on such mysteries pass through
their period of doubt?"

"But suppose I never pass through mine! You have not answered my
question," he said determinedly. "Does this make no difference in your
feeling for me? Would it make none?"

"Will you bring me that book on the religions of the world?"

"Ah," he said, "you have not answered."

"I have told you that I am not your judge."

"Ah, but that tells nothing: a woman is never a judge. She is either
with one or against him."

"Which do I look like?"--she laughed evasively--"Mercy or Vengeance?
A