that have formed such a sweet,
love-sanctified union as we have. That girl is purest gold, a pearl of
untold price. There has never been a jar in the harmony of our lives. We
love each other absolutely. We trust and believe in each other. We would
make any sacrifice for each other. And, I say it again, our marriage is
tenfold holier than ninety-nine out of a hundred of those performed with
all the pomp of surplice and sacristy."

"Oh, man! man!" he said crushingly, "what's got into you? What nonsense,
what clap-trap is this? I tell you that the old way, the way that has
stood for generations, is the best, and it's a sorry day I find a
brother of mine talking such nonsense. I'm almost glad Mother's dead. It
would surely have broken her heart to know that her son was living in
sin and shame, living with a----"

"Easy now, Garry," I cautioned him. We faced each other with the table
between us.

"I'm going to have my say out. I've come all this way to say it, and
you've got to hear me. You're my brother. God knows I love you. I
promised I'd look after you, and now I'm going to save you if I can."

"Garry," I broke in, "I'm younger than you, and I respect you; but in
the last few years I've grown to see things different from the way we
were taught; broader, clearer, saner, somehow. We can't always follow in
the narrow path of our forefathers. We must think and act for ourselves
in these days. I see no sin and shame in what I'm doing. We love each
other--that is our vindication. It's a pure, white light that dims all
else. If you had seen and striven and suffered as I have done, you might
think as I do. But you've got your smug old-fashioned notions. You gaze
at the trees so hard you can't see the forest. Yours is an ideal, too;
but mine is a purer, more exalted one."

"Balderdash!" he cried. "Oh, you anger me! Look here, Athol, I came all
this way to see you about this matter. It's a long way to come, but I
knew my brother was needing me and I'd have gone round the world for
you. You never told me anything of this girl in your letters. You were
ashamed."

"I knew I could never make you understand."

"You might have tried. I'm not so dense in the understanding. No, you
would not tell me, and I've had letters, warning letters. It was left to
other people to tell me how you drank and gambled and squandered your
money; how you were like to a madman. They told me you had settled down
to live with one of the creatures, a w