not seem to him that a mature man was
speaking to a mere girl. She seemed, as always, ages beyond him in
wisdom and experience.

Carmen reached up and wound her arms about his neck. He bent low and
kissed her brow. Then he drew himself up quickly and resumed his
broken talk.

"I believed at first that my salvation lay in you. And so it did, for
from your clear thought I gleaned my first satisfying knowledge of the
great principle, God. But alas! I could not seem to realize that
between recognizing righteousness as 'right-thinking' and daily
practicing it so as to 'prove' God there was a great difference. And
so I rested easy in my first gleams of truth, expecting that they
would so warm my soul that it would expand of itself out of all
error."

She made as if to reply, but he checked her.

"I learned enough, I repeat, those first few months here to have
enabled me to work out my salvation, even though with fear and
trembling. But I procrastinated; I vacillated; I still clung to
effete beliefs and forms of thought which I knew were bound to
manifest in unhappiness later. I was afraid to boldly throw myself
upon my thought. I was mesmerized. Yes, the great Paul was at times
under the same mesmeric spell of human belief, even after he had seen
the vision of the Christ. But he worked his way steadily out. And now
I see that I must do likewise, for salvation is an individual
experience. No vicarious effort, even of the Christ himself, can save
a man. The principle is already given us. We must apply it to our
problems ourselves. My unfinished task--scarcely even begun!--lies
still before me. My environment is what I have made it by my own
thought. I believe you, that I can enter another only as I externalize
it through righteousness, right-thinking, and 'proving' God."

He paused and bent over the silent little figure nestling so quietly
at his side. His throat filled. But he caught his breath and went on.

"You, Carmen, though but a child in years, have risen beyond me, and
beyond this lowly encompassment. Why, when you were a mere babe, you
should have grasped your padre Rosendo's casual statement that 'God is
everywhere,' and shaped your life to accord with it, I do not know.
Nor do you. That must remain one of the hidden mysteries of God. But
the fact stands that you did grasp it, and that with it as a light
unto your feet you groped your way out of this environment, avoiding
all pitfalls and evil snares, until t