intervenes."

"That's all right, Ruth, I'm so glad you told me," said Doctor Harmon.
"I can make it all perfectly clear to you. You just go on and worship me
all you please. It's bound to make a cleaner, better man of me. What you
feel for me will hold me to a higher moral level all my life than I ever
have known before; but never forget that you are not going to live in
Heaven. You will be here at least sixty years yet, so when you come to
think of selecting a partner for the relations of the world, you stick
to the finest man on earth; see?"

"I do!" said the Girl. "I saw you kiss Molly a week ago. She is lovely,
and I hope you will be perfectly happy. It won't interfere with my
worshipping you; not the least in the world. Go ahead and be joyful!"

The doctor sprang to his feet in crimson confusion. The Girl lay and
laughed at him.

"Don't!" she cried. "It's all right! It takes a weight off my soul as
heavy as a mountain. I do adore you, as I said. But every hour since I
left Chicago a big, black cloud has hung over me. I didn't feel free.
I didn't feel absolved. I felt that my obligations to you were so heavy
that when I had settled the last of the money debt I was in honour
bound----"

"Don't, Ruth! Forget those dreadful times, as I told you then! Think
only of a happy future!"

"Let me finish," said the Girl. "Let me get this out of my system with
the other poison. From the day I came here, I've whispered in my heart,
'I am not free!' But if you love another woman! If you are going to
take her to your heart and to your lips, why that is my release. Oh Man,
speak the words! Tell me I am free indeed!"

"Ruth, be quiet, for mercy sake! You'll raise a temperature, and the
Harvester will pitch me into the lake. You are free, child, of course!
You always have been. I understood the awful pressure that was on you
with the very first glimpse I had of your mother. Who was she, Ruth?"

"She never would tell me."

"She thought you would appeal to her people?"

"She knew I would! I couldn't have helped it."

"Would you like to know?"

"I never want to. It is too late. I infinitely prefer to remain in
ignorance. Talk of something else."

"Let me read a wonderful book I found on the Harvester's shelves."

"Anything there will contain wonders, because he only buys what appeals
to him, and it takes a great book to do that. I am going to learn. He
will teach me, and when I come within comprehending distance of him,