oration or to trample it in the mire. When your faith in me expired,
mine was born. Do you recollect that beautiful painted window in
Lincoln Cathedral which the untutored fingers of an apprentice
fashioned out of the despised bits of glass rejected by the
fastidious master-builder? It is so vastly superior to every other in
the church that the vanquished artist could not survive the chagrin
and mortification, and killed himself. My faith is very strong, that,
please God, I shall some day show you similar handiwork."

"You grow enigmatical, and I do not fully understand you."

"No; you do not in the least comprehend me. The girl whom you left six
months ago has changed in many respects."

"For better, or for worse?"

"Perhaps neither one nor yet the other; but, at least, sir, 'my future
will not copy fair my past.'"

"Since my return, I have noticed an alteration in your deportment,
which, I regret to say, I cannot consider an improvement; and I should
feel inclined to attribute your restless impatience to nervous disease
were I not assured by your appearance that you are in perfect health.
Remember, that quietude of manner constitutes a woman's greatest
charm; and, unfortunately, you seem almost a mimic maelstrom. But,
pardon me, I did not intend to lecture you; and, hoping all things, I
will patiently wait for the future that you seem to have dedicated to
some special object. I will try to have faith in my perverse little
friend, though she sometimes renders it a difficult task. May I
trouble you to stamp those letters?"

He could not analyze the change that passed swiftly across her face,
nor the emotion that made her suddenly clinch her hands till the rosy
nails grew purple.

"Dr. Grey, don't you believe that if Judas Iscariot had only resisted
the temptation of the thirty pieces of silver, and stood by his master
instead of betraying him, that his position in heaven would have been
far more exalted than that of Peter, or even of John?"

"That is a question which I have never pondered, and am not prepared
to discuss. Why do you propound it?"

She did not answer immediately; and, when she spoke, her glittering
eyes softened in their expression, and resembled stars rising through
the golden mist of lingering sunset splendor.

"God gave you a nobler heart than mine, and left it an easy, pleasant
matter for you to be good; while, struggle as I may, I am constantly
in danger of tumbling into some slough of in