possible. Courtland was a man of too much force, even young as he was,
and too much maturity of thought, to be permanently entangled with a
girl like Gila. That was what Tennelly thought before Gila had turned
her eyes toward him and flung a few of her silver gossamer threads about
his soul. For always in those first days of his visits to Gila it had
been in Courtland's behalf; first, to see if she was good enough for a
friend of his friend, and next to get her partnership in the scheme of
turning Courtland's thoughts away from "morbid" things.

But that night for the first time Tennelly saw the Solveig in Gila, and
was stirred on his own account. The childish blue frock and the simple
frilled 'kerchief did their work with his high soul as well; and he sat,
charmed, and watched her. After all, there was more to her than he had
thought, or else she was a consummate actress! So Tennelly sat late
before the fire, till Gila knew that he would turn aside again often to
see her for himself, and then she let him go.

CHAPTER XXV

Gila took herself off to a house-party the very next day, with only a
tinted, perfumed note, like a flutter of painted wings, to explain that
the butterfly had melted into the pleasant sunshine to taste honey in
other flowers for a time.

In a way her going was a relief to Courtland. He didn't understand
himself. There was something wrong, and he wanted to find out what
before he saw her again.

It was while he was in this troubled state that he stumbled upon the
Bible as something that might possibly bring light.

He had studied it before in his biblical literature classes, and found
it much like other books, a literary classic, a wonderful gem of beauty
in its way, a rare collection of legends, proverbs, allegories, and the
like. But looking at it now, with the possible hypothesis that it was
the Word of God, all was changed.

He remembered once seeing a tray of gems in an exhibit, and among them
one that looked like a common pebble. The man who had charge of the
exhibit took the little pebble and held it in the palm of his hand for a
moment, when it suddenly began to glow and sparkle with all the colors
of the rainbow and rival all the other gems. The man explained that only
the warmth of the human hand could cause this marvelous change. You
might lay the stone under the direct rays of a summer sun, yet it would
have no effect until you took it in your hand, when it would give forth