e use of
living?"

"I can't do anything," said Reginald, "with this clog." He looked
contemptuously at his ebony crutch as he spoke.

John laid his hand upon his arm. "Rege," he said in his old, tender way.
"I think this very 'clog' as you call it, is a preparation to help those
who are passing through the baptism of pain."

* * * * *

Mrs. Reginald Hawthorne welcomed her husband's friend with a winning
charm. She was very pretty, very graceful and very young. Reginald
idolized her. John saw that as he looked around the sumptuous home whose
every fitting was a tribute to her taste. They had just finished
unpacking the things they had brought from Europe.

"Strangely enough," said Reginald with a laugh, "I told Elise this
morning that now I was going to start out in search of you!"

He had developed wonderfully. John saw that too. Travel and trial had
brought out the good that was in him--but not the best.

The evening passed pleasantly. Mrs. Hawthorne played beautifully, and
Reginald had kept ears and eyes open and talked well.

"How about the other life, Rege?" asked John when they had a few moments
alone. "This one seems very fair."

"All a humbug, John. You Christians are chasing a will o' the wisp, a
jack o' lantern. You remember my fad for mathematics? I have followed it
up, and I find your theory a 'reductio ad absurdum.' I must have
everything demonstrable and clear. This is neither."

"Yet it was a great mathematician who said, 'Omit eternity in your
estimate of area and your solution is wrong.'"

Reginald shook his head. "I have nothing to do with this faith business.
I go as far as I see, no further."

"God calls our wisdom foolishness, Rege. Jesus Christ put a tremendous
premium upon the faith of a little child."

"Things must be tangible for me to believe in them. Reason is king with
me."

"Without faith in your fellow man--and your wife--you would have a poor
time of it, Rege; why should you refuse to have faith in your God? Is
your will tangible, and can you demonstrate the mysterious forces of
nature? You know you can't, Rege, you have to take them on trust; and if
you had seen what I have, you would know that poor human reason is a
pitiful thing! But I won't argue with you. Some day you will
understand."

Reginald Hawthorne went back into the room where his wife was sitting.
"Elise, darling, you have seen one of the grandest men in the world
to-night. Th