nderly Father Raphael sat smiling down at her bowed head. Often
had he listened to this cry--the cry of those who in a moment of
extremity long for a cool refuge from the hot brawls of life. Then he
said softly:

"You would make a most unhappy nun, my child."

In a small, ashamed voice she asked:

"Why do you say so, Father?"

"For many reasons. You have heard the expression, 'vocation,' have you
not?"

"Yes, Father."

"You have been given brilliant gifts, great beauty, a little child----
There lies your 'vocation.' To live in the world yet not of it, that is
the life to which God has called you."

"Oh, Father! You do not know me. Christ said: 'Blessed are the poor in
spirit.' I am very proud, Father--horribly, wrongly proud."

The priest did not answer her directly. He said in a musing tone:

"I have often thought how that saying of Our Lord's has been
misinterpreted. By 'poor in spirit' surely He did not mean poverty of
spirit, but that to be truly poor--that is, detached from the things of
this world--a man must not only give up those things themselves, but
give up even the desire for them. That is how I understand the saying,
'Blessed are the poor in spirit.'"

"But, Father--to go back--to be his wife--after---- Oh, it is not only
that--but in one of his furies he might kill me--he might kill my little
son! You don't know--you can't imagine what he is like then----"

"God does not ask impossibilities from His children," said Father
Raphael firmly. "'He is faithful that promised. With the temptation He
will also make a way of escape.' Should you fail to save your husband
from this fatal habit--should your life, or your son's life, be in
danger, then your duty would be to save yourself. The commandment is not
'Thou shalt love thy neighbor better than thyself'--but 'as thyself.'"

"And are people ever really saved from opium or morphine, Father?"

"Yes, my child. One of the best men that I know--a fellow worker with me
here--was a morphinomaniac."

"How was he saved, Father?"

"By God's mercy and his own desire to be saved."

"Ah, Father--that is just it! Will he--will my husband desire to be
saved? Will he let me help him?"

"The effort must be yours--the result is with God. If, after you have
honestly tried by every means in your power--and failed--then--I, a
Roman Catholic priest, to whom marriage is a sacrament, say to you: 'Go
home to your own land and your own kinsfolk.'"

He spoke solemnly