even _he_ could
accomplish. Then I'm--afraid I cannot tell you--this it might--soil your
soul."

"Go on." Ruth spoke hoarsely. She was spellbound and a deathly coldness
crept over her.

"Well, Jude dragged all of me down, down, down--all of me but the part
that--Mr. Gaston had made. That part clung to him as if he were its
God."

"I see, I see. Go on!"

"It was all low--and evil, that life with Jude, except the poor baby.
That had a soul, too, but the dreadful body could not hold it. It had to
go--and oh! I am so glad.

"Then, in all the world, there was nowhere for me to go but--here. I
did not mean to fling myself upon him. I came to save him. There was
money Jude had--oh! it doesn't matter, but anyway, things happened, and
I was left--on Mr. Gaston's mercy.

"I had only one idea of men--then. You see Jude had almost made a beast
of me, too." The great eyes shone until they burned into Ruth Dale's
brain.

"But Mr. Gaston rose high and far above my low fear and thought. How I
hated myself then for daring to judge him by--Jude. No, he made a clean,
holy place for me to live in. He saw no other way to help me--perhaps he
did not look far enough in the future, it did not matter--but he never
came down from his high place except to make me better by his heavenly
goodness.

"After a while it grew easy--after I comprehended his thought for
me--and we were very happy--just as we might have been had we been
brother and sister. I grew to think his own kind would know and
understand how impossible it would be for him to be other than what he
was; and for what the lower people thought I had no care. I was--just
happy!

"But something happened. Perhaps being near such goodness made me a
little better; and a great happiness and lack of fear helped--I think I
got nearer to his high place. He loved to give me pretty things. He gave
me this"--the fumbling fingers touched the yellow gown; "and I suppose I
looked--different, and then he saw that I had--changed and--and
he--loved me! I know he loved me; women can tell. I could not be wrong
about that. You see I had always loved him--and had once hungered
so for his love that when it came I could not be deceived.
It--was--that--last--night he told me--about--the past! Then he went
away to find Jude--to get Jude to set me free--and we were--going
to--be--" the words trailed into a faint moan. "But I see, I see! Even
if it had come out right--I'd always be, for all his goodne