m. She pictured
herself in glowing terms going with him and holding court among the
great of the land! She wheedled and coaxed and all but commanded, while
he sat and watched her sadly, realizing how well fitted she was for the
things she was describing and how she loved them all!

So shall we be separated, I and my people, from all the
people that are upon the face of the earth!

He started upright! It was as if a Voice had spoken the words, those
strange words from the Bible! Was this then what they meant? Separation!
But Gila was "his people" now. Was she not one day to be his wife? He
must explain it all to her. He must let her know that he had chosen a
way of separation that forbade the paths wherein she was longing to
wander. Would she shrink and wish to turn back? Nevertheless, he must
make it plain to her.

Gently, quietly, he tried to make her understand. He told her of the
visit of Ramsey Thomas and his own decision in the winter. He told her
of the factory that was built to blind the eyes of those who were trying
to uplift and help men. He tried to make conditions plain where girls as
young as she, and with just such hopes and fears and ambitions, perhaps
in some cases just as much sweetness and native beauty as she had, were
obliged to spend long hours of toil amid surroundings that must crush
the life out of any pure soul, and turn all the sweetness to bitterness,
the beauty to a peril! He hinted at things she did not know nor dream
of; dreadful things from which her life had always been safely guarded;
and how he could not, for the sake of those crushed souls, accept a
position that would close his mouth and tie his hands forever from doing
anything about it. He told her he could not accept honor that was
founded upon dishonor; that he had taken Christ for his pattern and
guide; that he could do nothing that would drive God's presence from
him.

She had been sitting with her face averted, her clasped hands dropped
straight down at the side of her lap, the fingers interlaced and tense
in excitement; her bosom heaving with agitation under the Paris gown;
but when he reached this point in his argument she sprang to her feet
and away from him, standing with her shoulders drawn back, her head
thrown up, her chin out, her whole lithe body stiff and imperious.

"It is time this stopped!" she said, and her voice was cold like a
frozen dagger and went straight through his heart. "It is time you put