od!" she prayed,--and once Nicanor had heard words babbling so
from a man upon the rack who never knew that he had talked aloud,--"keep
me from going with him! I want to so--oh, I want to so! Make me
strong--never let me yield to what is sin! Keep me from going with him!
I love him so that I would sin for him! Dear Jesus Lord, keep me from
doing that! But make me strong very quickly, or I must go--how can I
stay when he so sorely needs me? Oh, God, God, God, I could comfort him
so well! We cannot help it, neither he nor I. Nay, I will not weaken,--I
will be strong, quite strong,--but in pity Thou must help a little too!
I love Thee and the little Jesus, but I love him more--oh, nay--not
more! I did not mean it!" She raised her streaming face, turning at the
last from the Power whence no help came, to the human strength beside
her. "Oh, beloved, help me, for I cannot fight alone!"

So, at the need of one soul, into the world another soul was born, and
the long travail of spirit rending flesh was ended.

"Dear heart, be strong!--thy will shall be my will. If it be sin to
thee, thou shalt not sin through me!" Nicanor said, and knelt beside
her.

Nerveless and shaken with strangling sobs, she crept into the shelter of
his arms, trusting him wholly now that his word was hers, pleading
unconsciously that he save her from herself and from him. He lifted her
to her feet, soothing her with touch and voice, forgetting himself in
her distress. Her religious scruples he could not comprehend; the gods
of religion were to be invoked when one wanted material benefits from
them, not held as mentors to dictate one's course in life. But since she
had such scruples, and since he was learning new, strange tolerance for
and sympathy with others, it was not his to blame her for them; rather
to remember that though they might be nothing to him, they were all to
her, and were therefore not to be held lightly. So, because he was
slowly gaining the strength to think of others before himself,--and of
strength this is the surest test,--and because the tenderness of a
strong man is greater than all the tenderness of a woman, he soothed her
and brought her peace; and, it may be, in bringing it he found a measure
of it himself. She was very dear to him,--dear as one might be who was
not enshrined above all her kind forever. Heart and soul he was
another's, for all time and all eternity; yet life was his to live and
to make the best of it, even thou