the Father, I found it. If I
hadn't I'd been worse than the fastest of the fast set here. I wouldn't
have stopped short of the vilest. I would have been a crowned head of
beastliness. And nothing saved me from it but Jesus Christ. Could a man
have done that? Could anyone have done it who didn't believe in a future
and a spiritual life?"

Bauer came back to his chair and sat down. Walter seemed much impressed
by what he "said and the way he said it. At last he remarked
thoughtfully:

"You never told me anything of this before. I never understood you felt
so, or had such a faith."

"No, I've kept my light under a bushel. But man's religion is the most
sacred thing about him. Why don't we talk more about it? I don't know
unless with me it's been an excess of sensitiveness."

"I understand and thank you, Felix," said Walter after another long
silence.

During the days that followed he had many more talks with Bauer, all of
which did him vast good. Bauer, once he had opened the door of his soul,
threw away all reserve and invited Walter into the very holy of holies.

They also had plenty of argument. But Walter was no match for the German
student, who in his long hours of solitary existence, had managed to do
an astonishing quantity of reading and posted himself on all sorts of
difficult subjects with the German habit of exactness and thoroughness
in matters of detail, so that he soon had Walter hopelessly beaten when
it came to debate over religion and its office.

Finally Walter began slowly to regain his buoyancy and before the spring
vacation he had found a standing place for his faith and a reason for
his religion, so much so that he said to Bauer one Sunday evening after
they had come up to the room after hearing Mr. Harris at the church:
"Felix, I almost believe I could be a preacher. I believe I almost have
a message."

Bauer was immensely pleased.

"You are going to come out all right. You couldn't help it with such a
mother."

And yet, strange as it may seem, at that very moment Walter's mother was
passing through a crisis that was testing her Christian faith even more
severely than Walter's had been tested. There could be no doubt at all
but that Esther's pure and steadfast soul would win the victory; but oh,
the heartache of sorrowing motherhood! Will it ever cease?

Louis Douglas had been for several months a source of anxiety to both
Paul and Esther. As winter wore on he complained more and more