In fact, I had no idea that you could
transform yourself so completely. I believe I was on the point of
saying something about a vision of angels, but I'll be commonplace.
All I can say is, that if I were to meet such a priest in real life,
I'd down on my knees at once, make a confession, and--No, I wouldn't;
I'd try to become a priest myself, so as to be always somewhere near
him. And if he were a monk, I'd join the same monastery; and if he
were a missionary, I'd go with him to the uttermost ends of the
earth; if the cannibals ate him up, I'd make them eat me too; and, in
any event, I should feel that in such company I should be nearer
heaven than anywhere else. For, you see, you've always lived in a
serene atmosphere, where you have known nothing of the evil of the
world, and so your face has on it the stamp of Heaven itself, which
it first received, and which has never been effaced. So, you see,
you're just the one to go about as a priest. Oh, it's a great
advantage to be as you are, and to have that angelic face! Like the
old man in the song:

"'Oh, he never got drunk and he never swore,
And he never did violate the lor;
And so we buried him underground,
And the funeral-bell did merrily sound
Ding! Dong! Dell!'"

Thus far Brooke had rattled on in a strange, dry fashion; but
suddenly he stopped, and then exclaimed,

"Good Heavens!"

"What's the matter?" asked Miss Talbot, who had seemed much amused at
all this nonsense.

"Why, what have you done with your hair?"

Miss Talbot raised her hat from her head, and looked at him. Again he
looked at her in silence.

Yes, it was all gone! That glorious hair, which awhile ago had been
folded in great masses round her head, was there no longer. She had
cut it off! It was short now, like the hair of a young man, and hung
loose in wavy curls over her forehead. Yet so far from her appearance
being marred or disfigured by such a mutilation, the result was
actually more becoming to her as she stood there in her new costume.
Few could have made such a sacrifice without serious injury to their
appearance; but in this case there was merely a change from one
character to another, and all the beauty and all the subtle
fascination still remained.

"I couldn't have believed it," said Brooke, at length.

"What?"

"Oh, well--several things. In the first place, I couldn't have
believed that any living girl could have made the sacrifice. In the
second place, I