. "Why the wicked prosper has
never worried me in the least. The first big religious idea I ever got
hold of was that this is the best possible world God could have
created--because it's free. Man must choose, otherwise his deeds have
no meaning. A deed of mine is good merely because I have the power to
do its opposite if I choose. In this free world step by step I can rise
or fall through suffering and choosing."

"Oh, Jim," Nan broke in softly, "I've made you suffer horribly. You
have the right to be hard and bitter."

"But I'm not, Nan," was the quiet answer. "I've been made generous and
warm and tender by disappointment. Through the gates of pain I've
entered into fellowship with my fellow-men, the humblest and the
greatest. This sense of kinship has given me a larger vision. I've
learned to love all sentient things. I've made friends with all sorts
and conditions of men, the rich, the poor, the good, the bad. You have
taught me the greatest secret of life."

"I wish I could blot out the memory of the pain."

"Well, I'm glad you can't. Life has become to me a thing so wonderful,
so mysterious, so beautiful--just life within itself--I'd live it all
over again if I could."

"Every moment of it?"

"Every moment with every light and shadow. It's glorious to live!"

A solemn English butler entered and announced dinner.

Seated by Nan's side alone in the great dining room, while servants in
gorgeous liveries hurried with soft light footfall to do her slightest
bidding, Stuart could scarcely shake off the impression that he was
dreaming. Such pictures he had weaved in his fancy the first wonderful
days of their conscious love-life. But it seemed centuries ago now.
They had both died and come to life again in a new mysterious world, a
world in which he was yet a stranger and Nan at home. The splendours of
the stately room pleased his poetic fancy and in spite of his hostile
effort he had to confess in his heart that Nan's magnificent figure
gave the scene just the touch of queenly dignity which made it perfect.
He tried again and again to recall the girl he had known in the old
days, but the vision faded before the dazzling light of the present.

He looked at Nan cautiously and began to study her every word and
movement and weigh each accent. Did she mean what her words and tones
implied? In a hundred little ways more eloquent than speech she had
said to him to-night that the old love of the morning of life was st