iquity, or setting up
false gods for my soul to bow down to. Because it is so much more
difficult for me to do right than for you, it is only just that my
reward should be correspondingly greater."

"I am neither John nor Peter, nor are you Judas; and only He who knows
our mutual faults and follies, our triumphs and defeats in the
life-long campaign with sin, can judge us equitably. I am too
painfully conscious of my own imperfections not to sympathize
earnestly with the temptations that may assail you; and, moreover, we
should never lose sight of the fact,--

'What's done we partly may compute,
But know not what's resisted.'"

"Dr. Grey, you have great confidence in the efficacy of prayer?"

"Yes; for without it human lives are rudderless, drifting to speedy
wreck and ruin."

"If I ask a favor, will you grant it?"

"Have I ever denied you anything that you asked?"

"Yes, sir,--your good opinion."

"I knew that had you really desired that, you would long since have
rendered it impossible for me to withhold it. But to the point,--what
is your petition?"

"I want you to pray for me."

"Salome, are you serious? Are you really in earnest?"

"Mournfully in earnest."

"Then rest satisfied that henceforth you will always have a place in
my prayer; but do not forget the greater necessity of praying for
yourself. Now, tell me how you have been employed during my long
absence. Where are the accumulated exercises which I promised to
examine and correct when I returned?"

"Promised whom?"

"You."

"You forget that I did not see you the day you left, and that you did
not even bid me good-by."

"I referred to your French exercises in a brief and hurried note that
I left for you."

"Left where? I never received--never heard of it."

"I laid it upon your plate, where I supposed you would certainty
notice it when you came home to dinner."

"Why did not you give it to Miss Jane?"

"Simply because she was not in the room when I wrote it. It is rather
surprising that it escaped your observation, as I laid it in a
conspicuous place."

She did not deem it necessary to inform him that on that unlucky day
she had suddenly lost her appetite, and failed to go to the table; and
now she put her fingers over her eyes to conceal the blaze of joyful
light that irradiated them, as he mentioned the circumstance,
comparatively trivial, but precious in her estimation, since it was
freighted with the assurance that at le