ict and soul-torture had torn down all her defenses.

"You are right in all that you have said--but you don't know all!" The
flame rose in the pallid face; "but if you did, the truth of what you
have said would be all the deeper.

"My love has been a selfish one because I never thought it lay in my
power to do anything for--him. I see there is something now that I can
do--and I mean to do it so thoroughly that even his goodness cannot
prevent. He is so very, very good; oh! if you could only know him as I
know him!

"I am--going to my husband, then--that will finish it! But I must tell
you something--first."

Joyce caught her breath, and she sat up straight and rigid.

"I suppose in your life you could not believe that a man like Mr. Gaston
could be just good to me--and nothing else?"

Woman looked at woman. The world's woman noted the beauty and tender
grace of the unworldly woman, and her eyes fell.

"It would be difficult to believe that. I have heard of such cases--I
never knew one--and for that very reason of unbelief, it does not
greatly matter--the outcome would be the same--for the woman and the
man."

"Yes; but they would know, and God would know; might that not be
enough?"

"No. Believe me--it would not be enough."

"Do you believe me when I tell you that, in this case, it is true?"

Again the two held each other in a long challenge. Then:

"Joyce, as God hears me, I _do_ believe you. Now I am more eager than
ever to be your friend."

"You--cannot be mine--but you must be his!"

"His?" Ruth started back.

"Yes. I do know--something of his life. He belonged--to your world. He
had a great, a terrible trouble--but through it all he saw the stars,
not the mud, and he came out of it--a strong, tender, brave man."

A dull sob shook the low, sweet voice.

"All the shameful sorrow served as a purpose to make him noble--and
splendid; but his soul was sad and hurt. He never blamed any one, though
there were others who should have suffered more than he. He just gave
himself up to the chance of gaining good out of all the evil. Then he
came here--to rest. But he could not help being kind and helpful. He
found--me. He taught me, he gave me hope and showed me--how to live. Oh!
you can never understand. You have always had life--I never had it
until he took the blindness from me.

"He tried to do the best for me--he wanted me to marry Jude Lauzoon. He
tried to make Jude good, too--but that was more than