the truth exhaled from
her words. Without real perception Lois drew it in; she grew very still;
even her hands were still. Verily it had got to this: that to hear her
dearest were dead, merely dead, could be the only better tale to come.

'Then,' said Rhoda, 'the morrow came and closed, and I would not believe
he could have kept his promise to be dead; and a day and a day followed;
and I dared tell you nothing, seeing I might not tell you all. Then I
thought that in such extremity for your sake I did right to discover all
I could of his secret; at least I would know if she, Diadyomene, were one
vowed as I guessed in the House Monitory.

'Now I know, though I would not own it then, that deep in my heart was a
terrible dread that if my guess were good, no death, but a guilty
transaction had taken our Christian from us. Ah! how could I? after, for
his asking, I had prayed for her.

'Now, though the truth lies still remote, beyond any guess of mine;
though I heard of a thing--God only knows how she came by her life or her
death--lacking evidence, ay, or against evidence, we yet owe him trust in
the dark, never to doubt of his living worthily--if--he be not--dead
worthily. Ah, ah! which I cannot tell you.

'I went to the House Monitory and knocked. So stupid and weak I was, for
longer and harder than I looked for had the way been, and my dread had
grown so very great, that when the wicket opened I had no word to say,
and just stared at the face that showed, looking to read an answer there
without ever a question. I got no more sense than to say: "Of your
charity pray for one Diadyomene."

'I saw startled recognition of the name. Like a coward, a fool, in sudden
terror of further knowledge, I loosed the sill and turned to run in
escape from it. I fell into blackness. Afterwards I was told I had
fainted.

'They had me in before I came to myself. Ah! kind souls they were. A
monitress knelt at either side, and one held my head. When memory came
back, I looked from one to the other, and dared not ask for what must
come. There was whispering apart that scared me. Then one came to me. "My
child," she said, "we will pray without question if you will; yet if you
may, tell us who is this Diadyomene?" I thought my senses had not come
back to me. They would have let me be, but I would not have it then. "Who
is she?" I said; "I do not know, I came to you to ask." "We do not know."
Bewildered, I turned to the one who had opened to