--that man, that John Ward, has sent Helen back! She's
here--she can't go home!"

Gifford was too astounded to speak.

"Yes," Lois cried, clinging to his arm, her eyes overflowing, "he is a
wicked man--he is cruel--and she thinks I am, Giff, just because I said
he was!"

Lois's agitation drove him into his most deliberate speech.

"What do you mean? I do not understand."

"Of course not! Nobody could think of anything so awful. Come into the
library, and I'll tell you. Father does not want it spoken of, Gifford,
but since you know she's here, I might as well explain."

The room was deserted, except for Max, who was stretched on the cool
hearthstones; it was full of dusky shadows lurking in the wainscoted
corners; the outside shutters were bowed, and only two thin streaks of
sunshine traveled in from the warm sweet garden outside. Some roses in a
bowl on the table filled the air with fragrance.

Lois hurried nervously through the story, breaking into angry grief that
John Ward should have made Helen angry at her. For she had told Gifford
how she had tried to console her cousin.

"It makes me hate John Ward more than ever!" she said, striking her hands
passionately together. "Oh, Giff, isn't it awful?"

"Poor fellow!" said the young man, deeply moved, "poor Ward! It is worse
for him than it is for Helen."

"Oh, how can you say so?" she cried; "but I'm sure I hope it is!"

"He won't weaken," Gifford went on slowly. "He will stand like a rock for
what he believes is right, and he will be more apt to believe it is right
if it nearly kills him."

"I wish it would! And Helen, poor darling, thinks he loves her. What sort
of love does he call this?"

"Oh, it is love," Gifford answered; "and I tell you, Lois, it is a height
of love that is ideal,--it is the measure of Ward's soul." They were both
so much in earnest, there was not the slightest self-consciousness in
this talk of love, even though Gifford added, "I never knew a man capable
of such devotion, and there are few women like Helen, who could inspire
it."

"But, Giff," Lois said, not caring to discuss John Ward's character, "did
you suppose anybody could be so narrow? Think how bigoted he is! And
nobody believes in hell now as he does."

"I don't know about that, Lois," Gifford responded slowly. "Lots of
people do, only they don't live up to their belief. If the people who say
they believe in hell were in dead earnest, the world would have been
converte