imself."

"Upon my word, coz, you're a puzzle! You talk in an unknown tongue.
Don't you know Self is the god we worship, and the aim of our existence
is to have it wear purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every
day?"

"It should not be!" cried Evadne. "Oh Louis, dear Louis, life can never
be grand until we are able to say--'Self has been crucified with
Christ!'"

* * * * *

Weeks rolled into months and Louis was still at 'The Willows.' His
cynicism had come to have a strangely wistful ring. John Randolph's
visits were frequent and they held long conversations together, these
men, the one who had seized every opportunity and made the most of it,
the other who had let his golden chances slip through his fingers one by
one; then John Randolph would go bravely back to his life of toil, while
Louis listened to Evadne's sweet voice as she sang in the gloaming, or
watched his ring glisten as her deft fingers were busy with their deeds
of love.

"How do you do it?" he exclaimed one evening when they were alone
together. "You never rest! Your whole life seems to be centered in the
lives of others, and there is nothing attractive about them, if there
were I could understand. It looks like such drudgery to me. Tell me,
little coz, what makes you give up all your ease to make these people
happy?"

"When we love our Father it is our joy to do his will," she answered
softly.

"If I could live like you and Randolph I should be perfectly satisfied.
I wish I had the courage to try."

"Mere outward living cannot save us, Louis. Nothing can but faith in the
atoning blood and the name and the love of Christ. Then--when we
believe, you know--all things become possible. We make an awful mistake
when we think we know better than the Bible. Nicodemus lived a perfect
outward life, yet Christ said to him, 'Except ye be born again--of the
Word and the Spirit--ye cannot see the Kingdom of God.' We are running a
terrible risk when we try to live without Jesus."

"That is what Randolph says. He is a one idea man, if ever there was
one, and yet he is so many sided! He is the most uncompromising fellow
I ever knew. I should as soon expect to see the stars fall from the sky
as to see him do a shady thing. You would be amused, coz, to see the
lady mother and Isabelle joining forces to lay siege to his affections."

What meant that sudden start and then the blush which flamed up over
cheek and brow? Lo