keep it
back, if thou hadst not resisted and fought against it. For bear this in
mind: Christ said he came not to call the good to repentance, but the
evil, and if thou art full of thine own, how then canst thou hope to
receive of a God that asketh not for sacrifice, but for love?"_

_Hence again the story resumed._

* * * * *

Colonel Singelsby had not before noticed the two men who were with
Sandy, now he observed them more closely. They were tall, middle-aged
men, with serious, placid, unemotional faces. Each carried a long white
staff, the end of which rested upon the ground. There was about them
something somehow different from anything Colonel Singelsby had ever
seen before. They were most quiet, courteous men, but there was that in
their personal appearance that was singularly unpleasant to Colonel
Singelsby. Why, he could not tell, for they were evidently gentlemen,
and, from their bearing, men of influence. He turned to Sandy again.

"How has it been with you since you have been here?" said he.

"It has been very hard with me," said Sandy, patiently; "very hard
indeed; but I hope and believe now that the worst is over, and that
by-and-by I shall be happy, and not have any more trouble."

"I trust so, indeed," said the Colonel; "but do not hope for too much,
Sandy. Even the best men coming to this world are not likely to be rid
of their troubles at once, and it is not to be hoped for that you, after
your ill-spent life, should find your lot easier than theirs."

"I know, sir," said Sandy, "and I am very sorry."

There was a meek acceptance of the Colonel's dictum that grated somehow
unpleasantly upon the Colonel's ears. He would rather that Sandy had
made some protest against that dictum. He approached half a step and
looked more keenly at the other, and then for the first time he saw that
some great, some radical, some tremendous change had happened. The man
before him was no doubt Sandy Graff, but all that was low-browed, evil,
foul, was gone, as though it had been washed away, and in its place was
a translucent, patient meekness, almost like--There was something so
terribly vital in that change that Colonel Singelsby shuddered before
it. He looked and looked, and then he passed the back of his hand across
his eyes. "All this is very unreal," said he, turning to his friend the
minister. "It is like a dream. I begin to feel as though nothing was
real. Surely it is not pos