r face, the varying tones of her voice unnerved Drew. He nodded to her
question.

"It was such a--dreadful, little, crooked form, Mr. Drew--such--a
hideous thing to hold a--a--soul. Just once, the _soul_ smiled at me
through the big, dark eyes--it wanted me to know it _was_ a soul--then
it went away."

Even while the smile trembled on the girl's lips the tears stood in her
eyes.

"You see," she went on, "no one would have blamed me if I had gone on
like that--the misshapen children, and soon they would have stopped
having souls--and Jude's cruelty,"--again that fearsome catch in the
voice--"they would have called me good--if I had stayed on--but you will
understand?" She bent toward him with pleading and yearning in her face.
"Oh! how I have just hungered to talk it over with you--and to feel
sure! There isn't any one else in all the world, you know, to whom I
could say this."

"How about Gaston?" Drew heard his own words, and they sounded brutal,
but they were forced from him.

Joyce stared surprisedly.

"Why--we never talk of--of that. How could we? But I read--and Mr.
Gaston has taught me to think--straight--and don't you notice how much
better I talk?"

"Yes--and dress." All that was hard in Drew rose in arms. This girl was
like the rest of her kind for all her wood-setting and strange beauty.
The only puzzling thing in the matter was her desire to talk it out with
him.

"I have lots of pretty things to wear." Joyce smoothed her heavy cloak.
"He's the kindest man I ever knew. That's another reason I had for
wanting to come to you. I want you to show him just _how_ you
understand. I begin to see how lonely he is--how lonely he has always
been up here--there is no one quite like him--but you. But Mr. Drew, do
you remember what you preached that day you--married us--Jude and me, I
mean?"

"I'm afraid not--so many things have happened since." Drew tried to keep
his feelings in check.

"Well, I remember every word." The glowing face again bent toward Drew.
"Can't you think back? It was about what we've brought into the world,
what we get here and shape into _our_ lives, and then what we leave when
we go--away. The blazed trail, you know, and clearing the way for
others. Oh, it was the sort of thing that when you thought about it you
didn't _dare_ go on being careless."

"I do--recall." Her intensity was gripping Drew in spite of himself. "It
was an old fancy. But it has helped me to live."

"It has _mad