e gone forward as
though I felt no alarm. I have never even spoken to you on the subject.
I stood by, believing so entirely in you that I dared let your own
nature redeem itself. But now you throw out a challenge, and I have no
choice but to meet it. I have got to fight for myself and my profession
and you, at the same time."

At last, then, the battle was fairly joined, and desperately as both the
lovers had struggled against it, they looked their destiny in the face.
With all Esther's love and sympathy for Hazard, and with all the subtle
power which his presence had on her will, his last speech was unlucky.
Here was what she had feared! She seemed to feel now, what she had only
vaguely suspected before, the restraint which would be put upon her the
moment she should submit to his will. He had as good as avowed that
nothing but the fear of losing her had kept him silent. She fancied that
the thunders of the church were already rolling over her head, and that
her mind was already slowly shutting itself up under the checks of its
new surroundings. Hazard's speech, too, was unlucky in another way. If
he had tried not to shock her by taking charge of her soul before she
asked for his interference, she had herself made a superhuman effort not
to shock him, and never once had she let drop a word that could offend
his prejudices. Since the truth must now come out, she was the less
anxious to spare his pride because he claimed credit for respecting
hers.

"Must you know why I have broken down and run away?" she said at last.
"Well! I will tell you. It was because, after a violent struggle with
myself, I found I could not enter a church without a feeling of--of
hostility. I can only be friendly by staying away from it. I felt as
though it were part of a different world. You will be angry with me for
saying it, but I never saw you conduct a service without feeling as
though you were a priest in a Pagan temple, centuries apart from me. At
any moment I half expected to see you bring out a goat or a ram and
sacrifice it on the high altar. How could I, with such ideas, join you
at communion?"

No wonder that Esther should have hesitated! Her little speech was not
meant in ridicule of Hazard, but it stung him to the quick. He started
up and walked across the room to the window, where he stood a moment
trying to recover his composure.

"What you call Pagan is to me proof of an eternal truth handed down by
tradition and divine rev