Her trembling voice was still, but throbbing heart and swelling bosom
still poured forth their passionate utterance.

Soon her lips opened again, yielding before the inner tide.

"And father," her hot cheek pressed to mine foretold the ardent story,
"it was at evening, as I said, and Angus and I had wandered far--farther
than we thought. We were resting on a grassy knoll. Angus had been
speaking of his mother, and he said that the beauty of nature always
made his heart ache. Surely, father, there is nothing so lonesome as
beauty when the heart's lonesome! Angus and I were still a long
time--till it was growing dusk; and then at last he said, 'How lonely
all this is if no one loves you!' And I started at his tone, and when my
eyes met his I went down before them, for they caressed me so. Father
dear, I need not tell you all. I could not if I would--no girl could. I
know, I remember, oh, I remember what he said, and no one else knows but
me, and my soul trusted him and he took me into the sheltering place
where nobody but God could see my soul's surrender."

"My daughter, my little daughter," was all I said.

"Wait, father," her face now was hidden deep and she was whispering into
my very heart, "there is another thing I want to tell you--no, two
things, for they were both together.

"Father, he kissed me--on the lips--and I did not believe it; for just a
moment before we had been listening to the crickets and looking at the
sun. But he kissed me on the lips and my whole soul surged hot, and my
eyes were closed--for I felt him coming and I could not speak or move.

"And I don't know why, but I thought of the sacrament and the holy wine,
and everything was holy--not like music, but like a bell, a great
cathedral bell with its unstained voice. And father (I shall feel purer
when I tell you this), father, that very moment I felt a strange new
life in my breast and the old girlish life was gone--and there came
before my closed eyes a vision of another just like Angus, white and
soft and helpless--and I heard its cry--and my heart melted in me with
the great compassion. And I knew that what I called love was really
life, just life. And I felt no shame at all, but a great pride that it
was all so holy--for it is holy, father, and no one prompted it but God.
Father, do you love me?"

I bent to kiss the glowing lips, but I remembered, and kissed her brow
instead, beautiful and pure before my misty eyes. She drew herself
ge