ar that it might end in a living death--these,
fighting there, lit up her eyes as candles at an altar of love. Then
the very difference of his attitude, as he stood there, struck
her,--the beautiful dignity of his face, his smile. She saw in an
instant that sensualism had vanished--there was something spiritual
which she had never seen before. A wave of trust, in her utter
helplessness, a feeling of respect, of admiration, swept over her.
She arose quickly, wondering at her own decision.

He bowed low, and there was a ringing sweetness in his voice as he
said: "I have come for you, Helen--if you wish to go."

"I will go, Richard Travis, for I know now you will do me no harm."

"Do you think you could learn to love me?"

She met his eyes steadily, bravely: "That was never in the bargain.
That is another thing. This is barter and trade--the last ditch
rather than starvation, death. This is the surrender of the earthen
fort, the other the glory of the ladder leading to the skies.
Understand me, you have not asked for that--it is with me and God,
who made me and gave it. Let it stay there and go back to him. You
offer me bread"--

"But may it not turn into a stone, an exquisite, pure diamond?" he
asked.

She looked at him sadly. She shook her head.

"Diamonds are not made in a day."

The light Jud Carpenter saw flashed in his eyes: "I have read of one
somewhere who turned water into wine--and that was as difficult."

"If--if--" she said gently--"if you had always been this--if you
would always be this"--

"A woman knows a man as a rose knows light," he said simply--"as a
star knows the sun. But we men--being the sun and the star, we are
blinded by our own light. Come, you may trust me, Sweet Rose."

She put her hand in his. He took it half way to his mouth.

"Don't," she said--"please--that is the old way."

He lowered it gently, reverently, and they walked out.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE DYING LION

"Lily has been taken home," he said as she walked out with him. "She
is safe and will be cared for--so will be your father. I will explain
it to you as we drive to Millwood."

She wondered, but her cheeks now burned so that all her thoughts
began to flow back upon herself as a tide, flowing inland, and
forgetting the sea of things. Her heart beat faster--she felt
guilty--of what, she could not say.

Perhaps the guilt of the sea for being found on the land.

The common mill girls--were they not all look