. If you love me still, I'll find the heart to make it; ay, and
to succeed!" Coming back to her, he took her in his arms. "You do love
me? That isn't dead?"

"I love you, Lewis."

"Then, by God, I'll fight it out! Jacqueline, Jacqueline--"

She presently freed herself. "What are you going to do--what are you
going to do now, Lewis?"

"I will tell you what I have done, and where the danger's greatest--"

"The danger?"

"The danger of discovery."

"Lewis--will you not tell them?"

"Tell them--"

"Is it not--oh, Lewis, is it not the only thing to do? Sin and
suffering--yes, yes, the whole world sins and suffers! But oh, ignoble
to sin and to reject the suffering!"

He stared at her incredulously. "Do you know, Jacqueline,--do you know
what you are saying?"

"Will it be so hard?" she asked, and put out her arms to him. "It is
right."

"Let me understand," he said. "When the mist cleared and I saw him lying
there, I sat down upon a stone, and I said to myself, 'This is a strange
land, and I am to eat the fruits thereof.' For a while I did not think
of moving. You would have had me stay there as he stayed, watch there
beside him until men came?"

She answered almost inaudibly, "It had been nobler."

"And then and there to have given myself up?"

"Lewis, if it was right--I would have said to God and the world and him,
'It is the least that I can do!'"

He stared at her. "By God, the _amende honorable!_"

There came blinding lightning, followed by thunder which seemed to shake
the room. Rand crossed to the hearth and, with his booted foot upon the
iron dogs, rested his arm upon the mantel-shelf and his head upon his
hand. "I'll think of that awhile," he said harshly. "That means disgrace
and may mean death."

He heard the drawing of her breath. There was a knock at the door
followed by Mammy Chloe's voice. "De bread an' meat an' wine on de
table, marster."

"Very well, Mammy, I'll come presently," the master answered; then, when
she was gone, "This is the earth, Jacqueline. It was long while I sat
there upon the stone and saw matters as they might be upon another
plane, but that appearance passed. Because for those moments I saw its
shape, I know the aspect that is before your eyes. But it is not reality
that you see; it is an appearance, thin and unsubstantial as the mist
upon the hills. Expiation, purgation, aided retribution, the criminal to
spare Justice the search, and the offender against Society