as to spoken arguments. "I know the whole
is greater than the parts; I know that to make a whole village
prosperous and happy is more than the welfare of three or four, but
the three and the four come first, and that which I would have for
myself is divine, and of God, and I cannot be what I would be without
it, for no man who hungers gets his full strength. If I give this, it
is all. I can make no more of my life."

He looked as if he listened again for a moment, and then stood up.
"Well," he said, "it is true, if a man gives his all he can do no
more, and no more can be asked of him. What I have said I will do, I
will do, and I will save neither myself nor mine by a lie which I
must lie to--my own soul!"

Jerome went down the path to the road, but stopped suddenly, as if he
had got a blow. "Oh, my God!" he cried, "Lucina!" All at once a
consideration had struck him which had never fully done so before.
All at once he grasped the possibility that Lucina might suffer from
his sacrifice as much as he. "I can bear it--myself," he groaned,
"but Lucina, Lucina; suppose--it should kill her--suppose it
should--break her heart. I am stronger to suffer than she. If I could
bear hers and mine, if I could bear it all. Oh, Lucina, I cannot hurt
_you_--I cannot, I cannot! It is too much to ask. God, I _cannot!_"

Jerome stood still, in an involuntary attitude of defiance. His arm
was raised, his fist clinched, as if for a blow; his face uplifted
with stern reprisal; then his arm dropped, his tense muscles relaxed.
"I could not marry her if I did not give it up," he said. "I should
not be worthy of her; there is no other way."

Chapter XXXVIII

Jerome went to Lawyer Means's that night. Means, himself, answered
his knock, and Jerome opened abruptly upon the subject in his mind.
"I want to give away that money, as I said I would," he declared.

The lawyer peered above a flaring candle into the darkness. "Oh, it
is you, is it! Come in."

"No, I can't come in. It isn't necessary. I have nothing to say but
that. I want to give away the money, according to that paper you drew
up, and I want you to arrange it."

"You've made up your mind to keep that fool's promise, have you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Look here, young man, have you thought this over?"

"Yes, sir."

"You know what you're going to lose. You remember that your own
family--your father and mother and sister--can't profit by the gift?"

"Yes, sir; I have thought