rward and thanked me
and said that she, too, had worked a little as a nurse for
charity, and asked me to call on her.

"I was so silly--do you know I couldn't see her for
the tears, and I couldn't speak--and I couldn't let go
of her hands. I wanted to kiss them, but I was ashamed.

"Some day do you think I might see you again? I
am what you have asked me to be. I never wanted to be
anything else. They will not believe that at home because
they had warned me, and I was such a fool--and perhaps
you won't believe me--but I _didn't_ know what I
was doing; I didn't want to be what I became--This is
really true, Mr. Berkley. Sometime may I see you
again?
Yours sincerely,
"LETITIA A. LYNDEN."

He had replied that he would see her some day, meaning not to do
so. And there it had rested; and there, stretched on his sofa, he
rested, the sneer still edging his lips, not for her but for
himself.

"She'd have made some respectable man a good--mistress," he said.
"Here is a most excellent mistress, spoiled, to make a common-place
nurse! . . . _Gaude! Maria Virgo; gaudent proenomine molles
auriculoe. . . . Gratis poenitet esse probum_. Burgess!"

"Sir?"

"What the devil are you scratching for outside my door?"

"A letter, sir."

"Shove it under, and let me alone."

The letter appeared, cautiously inserted under the door, and lay
there very white on the floor. He eyed it, scowling, without
curiosity, turned over, and presently became absorbed in the book
he had been reading:

"Zarathustra asked Ahura-Mazda: 'Heavenly, Holiest, Pure, when a
pure man dies where does his soul dwell during that night?'

"Then answered Ahura-Mazda: 'Near his head it sits itself down. On
this night his soul sees as much joy as the living world possesses.'

"And Zarathustra asked: 'Where dwells the soul throughout the
second night after the body's death?'

"Then answered Ahura-Mazda: 'Near to his head it sits itself down.'

"Zarathustra spake: 'Where stays the soul of a pure roan throughout
the third night, O Heavenly, Holiest, Pure?'

"And thus answered Ahura-Mazda, Purest, Heavenly: 'When the Third
Night turns Itself to Light, the soul arises and goes forward; and
a wind blows to meet it; a sweet-scented one, more sweet-scented
than other winds.'

"And in that wind there cometh to meet him His Own Law in the body
of a maid, one beautiful, shining, with shining arms; one powerful,
well