God understood.

That was what he had said, this strong, true friend of hers, that night
he asked the question which he had never asked again. How gentle he
was!--but it was the gentleness of strength--and how every one
depended on him! She, herself, had learned to expect the helpful words
which he always gave her when they met. Friendship was a beautiful
thing!

CHAPTER XXX.

John Randolph came up behind Evadne one morning as she was dressing the
burns of a little lad who had been severely injured at a fire. She did
not hear his step--she was telling a bright story to the little
sufferer, to make him forget his pain, and the boy was laughing loudly.
His face was very grave, but his eyes lightened as they always did when
they rested upon her face.

"Mrs. Reginald Hawthorne is very ill. Can you, will you come?"

And Evadne answered with a simple "Yes." They needed so few words, these
two.

"I tell you I will not die!" The piercing cry rang through the handsome
room and fell like molten lead upon the heart of the man who with
strained, haggard face was sitting by the bedside. "You have not told me
the truth, Reginald! There is a God. I feel it! You have always laughed
and called me young and foolish, but I know better than you do, now.
You said if our lives were governed by reason, we would meet death like
a philosopher, and I do not know how to die! You used to laugh and say
the whole thing was child's play and there was nothing to fear, and I
believed you,--I thought you were so wise, but it was easy to believe
you then with your arms folded close about me and the sunlight streaming
through the windows and the shouts of the children outside, but now you
cannot go with me and I am afraid to go alone." The eyes, wild and
despairing, burned fiercely in the pallid cheeks. "Do you hear,
Reginald? I am afraid, I tell you; horribly afraid! You used to say you
would lay down your life to save me. Why do you not help me now?

"What makes you look so strangely, if it is all nonsense, Reginald? why
do you shut out all the sunshine and why is the house so still? You told
me once you were going to die with a laugh on your lips. I am dying,
Reginald, why don't you help your wife to die as you mean to do?
A----h!"

Her voice died away in a low wail of terror and the delicate blue veins
in her temples throbbed with feverish excitement. Reginald Hawthorne had
crouched down in his chair and buried his face in his hands.