tears fell upon it. She did not
speak as he went to the door. Then she gave a cry like the cry of a
wounded animal. She held out her hands to him.

"Not yet! Not yet!" she said.

She flung herself into his arms, kissing him and kissing him, holding
him to her with her arms about his neck.

"Good-by! Good-by, my darling, my best beloved. Oh, go! Go, Herbert,
before I die in your arms. Go!"

She was lying along the floor with her head on the sofa.

He was gone.

She looked wildly around the room, wiping the tears from her eyes. She
sprang to her feet, crying:

"Come back! Come back to me, my beloved! Oh, I was a fool! Such a fool
as women are when they think of such things as heaven and truth and
right! A fool! A fool!"

An hour afterward Ella called to say good-by to her. She was going to
Switzerland first, she said, to a quiet spot that she knew, where she
might think out some of the details of the Church. Mr. Holland would
meet her in Italy in the winter to consider some of the architectural
details.

When the hour of her departure was at hand she referred to another
matter--a matter on which she spoke much more seriously than she had yet
spoken on the subject of the Church.

"I could not go, my dear Phyllis," said she, "without telling you that I
know Herbert Courtland will come to you."

"No!" said Phyllis. "He will not come to me. He has been with me. He is
now gone."

"Gone? That would be impossible!" cried Ella. "You would not send him
away. He told you that he loved you."

"Yes, he told me that."

"And yet you sent him away? Oh, Phyllis, you would not break my heart. I
know that you love him."

"Do I?"

"You do love him. Oh, my Phyllis, I told him months ago that it was
the dearest wish of my heart to see you married to him. At that time he
laughed. Oh, it is horrible to me to recall now how he laughed. Shall I
ever forget that terrible dream? But now he loves you. I know it. What!
you think him unworthy of you because of--of that dream which was upon
us? Phyllis, don't forget that he fought with the sin and overcame it.
How? Ah! you know how. He overcame the passion that is of earth by the
love that is of heaven. It was his pure love for you that gave him the
victory. Why should you send him away?"

"He knows. He understands. He is gone."

"But I do not understand."

She held Phyllis' hand and looked into her face. She gave a sudden
start--a little start.

"Oh, surely, my Phyllis, yo