. Was she so pure, so
clean, so righteous, that contact with another soul--one that had known
passions and sorrows of which she was, of which she _must_ be,
ignorant--should soil her? If so, her righteousness was a poor thing,
her cleanness, that of the outside of the cup and platter, her purity,
that of unquarried marble.

Thorne drew nearer; she raised her head; their eyes met; he extended
his hands with a gesture not to be denied.

With a smile of indescribable graciousness, a tenderness, a royalty of
giving, she made a movement forward and laid her hands in his.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Thorne did not accompany the party to Virginia, although it was tacitly
understood that he should follow in time for Blanche's wedding, which
would take place in June. Pocahontas wished it so arranged, and
Thorne, feeling that his love had come to him, as through fire, was
anxious to order all things according to her wishes. He was very
quiet, grave, and self-contained; his old buoyancy, his old lightness
had passed away forever. The whirl and lash of a hurricane leave
traces which not even time can efface. A man does not come through
fire unscathed--he is marred, or purified; he is never the same. In
Thorne, already, faintly stirred nature's grand impulse of growth, of
pressing upward toward the light. He strove to be patient, tender,
considerate, to take his happiness, not as reward for what he was, but
as earnest of what he might become.

Jim remained in New York also. He would go back to his work, he said,
it would be better so. He had come north on business for his company,
and when that should be completed he would return to Mexico. He would
not go to Virginia; he did not want to see strangers in the old home;
he would write to his sisters and explain; no one need trouble about
him; he would manage well enough.

Before they separated, Jim had a long talk with Berkeley, and in the
course of it the poor fellow completed his victory over self. He spoke
generously of Thorne.

"It's a big subject, Berkeley," he said, in conclusion, "and I don't
see that you or I have any call to pass judgment on it, or to lay down
arbitrary lines, saying _this_ is righteous, _that_ is unrighteous. We
may have our own thoughts about the matter--we _must_ have, but we've
no right to lop or stretch other people to fit them. Princess is a
pure woman, a noble woman, better, a thousand-fold, than you or me or
any other man that breathe