the Godhood of the Christ; that unto the manhood of
the Son and Mystic Motherhood was added, upon Resurrection, the
Third Lustrous Dimension of the Father-God; that, thus Jesus
became the first fruit of earth, and thus He is enhanced above St.
Paul and the Forerunner, becoming Three in One--Man, risen to
Prophecy through illumination of the Holy Spirit, and to Godhood,
through his ineffable services to Men.

I believe that the way to Godhood is the Rising Road of Man.

I believe that, as the human mother brings a child to her husband,
the father,--so Mystic Motherhood, the Holy Spirit, is bringing
the world to God, the Father.

All had read, when Bedient entered. He went first to Beth....

"It's our own original gathering," he said, after a moment, "--but Mrs.
Wordling--where is she?"

Cairns' eye turned to Beth. She fixed hers upon him, as if it helped to
hold her strength.

Kate Wilkes answered: "We can find out in a moment--in the West
somewhere with her company----"

"She's in Detroit this week," came slowly from Beth. "I saw it to-day
in a dramatic paper----"

"Thank you.... We'll send a telegram of greeting. She must know she
isn't forgotten."

He wrote it out.

Kate Wilkes glanced at the Grey One, as if to say: "Here's something to
make her forget the soul of New York."

"I'm thankful to be here," Bedient said, in a moment. "It's like one's
very own."

FORTIETH CHAPTER

FULL DAY UPON THE PLAIN

Beth awoke early Christmas morning, and leaned out of the window to
look at the East. After a week of the year's darkest days, had come a
lordly morn, bright garments fresh from ocean.... The night had shown
her clearly the great thing which had befallen Andrew Bedient, a
suggestion of which had come to her from the first Equatorian letter.
And how wonderfully his life had prepared him for it!... Thirty-odd
swift strange years--ships, Asia, queer voices, far travels, unspoken
friendships, possibly a point or two of passion, glimpses into dim
lands and dark lives, the adored memory of his Mother whispered only to
one dear living heart, yet glowing over all his days----

"It was a man's love, then," Beth whispered.

She remembered his comings and goings, his sayings and silences. All
were leveled and subdued by a serene and far-evolved spirit; and upon
all was the flower of truth. His love had been an inner reverent thing
which did not vaunt itsel