tight-drawn coat of shiny black there were hidden tales which would
have gone well with the savage beat of the storm against the lighted
windows and the moaning tumult of the pine-trees.

Suddenly Forsythe shivered at a fiercer blast than the others, and said:

"Father, have you a text that would fit this night--and the situation?"

Slowly Father Charles blew out a spiral of smoke from between his lips,
and then he drew himself erect and leaned a little forward, with the
cigar between his slender white fingers.

"I had a text for this night," he said, "but I have none now,
gentlemen. I was to have married a couple a hundred miles down the
line. The guests have assembled. They are ready, but I am not there.
The wedding will not be to-night, and so my text is gone. But there
comes another to my mind which fits this situation--and a thousand
others--'He who sits in the heavens shall look down and decide.'
To-night I was to have married these young people. Three hours ago I
never dreamed of doubting that I should be on hand at the appointed
hour. But I shall not marry them. Fate has enjoined a hand. The Supreme
Arbiter says 'No,' and what may not be the consequences'?"

"They will probably be married to-morrow," said one of the traveling
men. "There will be a few hours' delay--nothing more."

"Perhaps," replied Father Charles, as quietly as before. "And--perhaps
not. Who can say what this little incident may not mean in the lives of
that young man and that young woman--and, it may be, in my own? Three
or four hours lost in a storm--what may they not mean to more than one
human heart on this train? The Supreme Arbiter plays His hand, if you
wish to call it that, with reason and intent. To someone, somewhere,
the most insignificant occurrence may mean life or death. And
to-night--this--means something."

A sudden blast drove the night screeching over our heads, and the
whining of the pines was almost like human voices. Forsythe sucked a
cigar that had gone out.

"Long ago," said Father Charles, "I knew a young man and a young woman
who were to be married. The man went West to win a fortune. Thus fate
separated them, and in the lapse of a year such terrible misfortune
came to the girl's parents that she was forced into a marriage with
wealth--a barter of her white body for an old man's gold. When the
young man returned from the West he found his sweetheart married, and
hell upon earth was their lot. But hope lingers in