ing as far as she
could see.

A great burying-ground stretched for what seemed like miles along one
side of the road. The polished marble gleamed red and bleak in the
setting sun. The sky had suddenly gone lead-color, and there was a
chill in the air. Leslie longed for nothing so much as to hide her
head in Julia Cloud's lap and weep. Yet she must go on and on and on
till this awful road came to an end. Would it _ever_ come to an end?
Oh, it _must_ somewhere! A great tower of bricks loomed ahead with a
wide paved driveway leading to it through an arched gateway, and over
the arch some words. Leslie got only one of them, "CREMATORY." She
shuddered, and put on speed. It seemed that she had come to the place
of death and desolation. It was lonely everywhere, and not a soul in
sight. What horror if her gasoline should give out in a place like
this, and they have to spend the night here, she and that poor, weak
creature sobbing behind! What contempt she felt for her former friend!
What contempt she felt for herself! Oh, she was well punished for her
wilfulness! To think she should have presumed to hope she could help
her to better ways, she, a little innocent, who never dreamed of such
depths of duplicity as had been shown her that afternoon! Oh, to think
of that loathsome Hicks person daring to touch her! To try to take her
car away from her! and to _smile_ at her in that disgusting way!

On and on went the car, and the road wound away into the dusk up a
high hill and down again, up another, past an old farmhouse with one
dim light in the back window and a great dog howling like one in some
old classic tale she had read; on and on, till at last a cross-road
came, and she knew not which way to take, to right or to left. There
was a sign-board; but it was too dark to read, and she dared not get
out and leave Myrtle. There was no telling but she might try to run
off with the car. It was at the crematory that she began to pray, and,
when she reached the crossing, her heart put up a second plea for
guidance. "O God, if You will just help me home, I will try, _try_,
TRY to be what You want me to be! Please, please, _please_!" It was
the old vow of a heart bowed down and brought to the limit. It was the
first time Leslie had ever realized that there could be a situation
in which Leslie Cloud would not find some way out. It was the first
time, too, perhaps, when she realized herself as being a sinner in the
sense of having a will