commandment at once."

He went away full of trouble and anxiety, and Rahal watched him down
the garden path and along the first stretch of the road. She knew by
his hurried steps and the nervous play of his walking stick that he
was both angry and troubled and she was not very sorry.

"If it was his business standing and his good name, instead of Thora's
happiness and good repute that was the question, oh, how careful and
conciliatory he would be! How anxious to keep his affairs from public
discussion! It would be anything rather than that! I have the same
feeling about Thora's good name. The marriage ought to go on for
Thora's sake. I do not want the women of Kirkwall wondering who was
to blame. I do not want them coming to see me with solemn looks and
tearful voices. I could not endure their pitying of 'poor Miss Thora!'
They would not dare go to Coll with their sympathetic curiosity, but
there are such women as Astar Gager, and Lala Snackoll, and Thyra
Peterson, and Jorunna Flett. No one can keep them away from a house in
trouble. Thora must marry. I see no endurable way to prevent it."

Then being dressed she went to Thora's room, and gently opened the
door. Thora was standing at her mirror and she turned to her mother
with a smiling face. Rahal was astonished and she said almost with a
tone of disapproval, "I am glad to see thee able to smile. I expected
to find thee weeping, and ill with weeping."

"For a long time, for many hours, I was broken-hearted but there came
to me, Mother, a strange consolation." Then she told her mother about
the prayer she heard her soul say for her. "Not one word did I speak,
Mother. But someone prayed for me. I heard them. And I was made strong
and satisfied, and fell into a sweet sleep, though I had yet not
solved the problem I had proposed to solve before I slept."

"What was that problem?"

"First, whether I should marry John just as he was, and trust the
consequences to my influence over him; or whether I should refuse him
altogether and forever; or whether I should wait and see what he can
do with my father and the good Bishop, to help and strengthen him."
And as Thora talked, Rahal's face grew light and sweet as she
listened, and she answered--"Yes, my dear one, that is the wonderful
way! Some soul that loved thee long, long ago, knew that thou wert in
great trouble. Some woman's soul, perhaps, that had lived and died for
love. The kinship of our souls far exceeds that of