must do all that is in my power to save it."

Mrs Davidson's ears rang still with the harlot's mocking laughter.

"She's gone too far."

"Too far for the mercy of God?" His eyes lit up suddenly and his voice
grew mellow and soft. "Never. The sinner may be deeper in sin than the
depth of hell itself, but the love of the Lord Jesus can reach him
still."

The girl came back with the message.

"Miss Thompson's compliments and as long as Rev. Davidson don't come in
business hours she'll be glad to see him any time."

The party received it in stony silence, and Dr Macphail quickly effaced
from his lips the smile which had come upon them. He knew his wife would
be vexed with him if he found Miss Thompson's effrontery amusing.

They finished the meal in silence. When it was over the two ladies got
up and took their work, Mrs Macphail was making another of the
innumerable comforters which she had turned out since the beginning of
the war, and the doctor lit his pipe. But Davidson remained in his chair
and with abstracted eyes stared at the table. At last he got up and
without a word went out of the room. They heard him go down and they
heard Miss Thompson's defiant "Come in" when he knocked at the door. He
remained with her for an hour. And Dr Macphail watched the rain. It was
beginning to get on his nerves. It was not like our soft English rain
that drops gently on the earth; it was unmerciful and somehow terrible;
you felt in it the malignancy of the primitive powers of nature. It did
not pour, it flowed. It was like a deluge from heaven, and it rattled on
the roof of corrugated iron with a steady persistence that was
maddening. It seemed to have a fury of its own. And sometimes you felt
that you must scream if it did not stop, and then suddenly you felt
powerless, as though your bones had suddenly become soft; and you were
miserable and hopeless.

Macphail turned his head when the missionary came back. The two women
looked up.

"I've given her every chance. I have exhorted her to repent. She is an
evil woman."

He paused, and Dr Macphail saw his eyes darken and his pale face grow
hard and stern.

"Now I shall take the whips with which the Lord Jesus drove the usurers
and the money changers out of the Temple of the Most High."

He walked up and down the room. His mouth was close set, and his black
brows were frowning.

"If she fled to the uttermost parts of the earth I should pursue her."

With a sudden mov