pray for repentance."

Infuriated though he was, before the commanding yet compassionate
bearing of the rector he remained speechless. And after a moment's
pause, Hodder turned and left the room....

III

When Hodder had reached the foot of the stairs, Alison came out to him.
The mourning she wore made her seem even taller. In the face upturned
to his, framed in the black veil and paler than he had known it, were
traces of tears; in the eyes a sad, yet questioning and trustful smile.
They gazed at each other an instant, before speaking, in the luminous
ecstasy of perfect communion which shone for them, undimmed, in the
surrounding gloom of tragedy. And thus, they felt, it would always
shine. Of that tragedy of the world's sin and sorrow they would ever be
conscious. Without darkness there could be no light.

"I knew," she said, reading his tidings, "it would be of no use. Tell me
the worst."

"If you marry me, Alison, your father refuses to see you again. He
insists that you leave the house."

"Then why did he wish to see you?"

"It was to make an appeal. He thinks, of course, that I have made
a failure of life, and that if I marry you I shall drag you down to
poverty and disgrace."

She raised her head, proudly.

"But he knows that it is I who insist upon marrying you! I explained
it all to him--how I had asked you. Of course he did not understand. He
thinks, I suppose, that it is simply an infatuation."

In spite of the solemnity of the moment, Hodder smiled down at her,
touched by the confession.

"That, my dear, doesn't relieve me of responsibility. I am just as
responsible as though I had spoken first, instead of you."

"But, John, you didn't--?" A sudden fear made her silent.

He took her hand and pressed it reassuringly.

"Give you up? No, Alison," he answered simply. "When you came to me, God
put you in my keeping."

She clung to him suddenly, in a passion of relief.

"Oh, I never could give you up, I never would unless you yourself told
me to. Then I would do it,--for you. But you won't ask me, now?"

He put his arm around her shoulders, and the strength of it seemed to
calm her.

"No, dear. I would make the sacrifice, ask you to make it, if it would
be of any good. As you say, he does not understand. And you couldn't go
on living with him and loving me. That solution is impossible. We can
only hope that the time will come when he will realize his need of you,
and send for you."