tremble at the thought of evil. Is your belief in the
redeeming power of God as great as your recoil from the wrong that makes
that redemption necessary?"

Quickly her head raised, a light fell on her brow, and her lips moved in
a vain effort to utter what her eyes unconsciously expressed.

"Paula, I would be unworthy the name of a man, if with the consciousness
of possessing a dark and evil nature, I strove by use of any hypocrisy
or specious pretense at goodness, to lure to my side one so
exceptionally pure, beautiful and high-minded. The ravening wolf and the
innocent lamb would be nothing to it. Neither would I for an instant be
esteemed worthy of your regard, if in this hour of my wooing there
remained in my life the shadow of any latent wrong that might hereafter
rise up and overwhelm you. Whatever of wrong has ever been committed by
me--and it is my punishment that I must acknowledge before your pure
eyes that my soul is not spotless--was done in the past, and is known
only to my own heart and the God who I reverently trust has long ago
pardoned me. The shadow is that of remorse, not of fear, and the evil,
one against my own soul, rather than against the life or fortunes of
other men. Paula, such sins can be forgiven if one has a mind to
comprehend the temptations that beset men in their early struggles. I
have never forgiven myself, but--" He paused, looked at her for an
instant, his hand clenched over his heart, his whole noble form shaken
by struggle, then said--"forgiveness implies no promise, Paula; you
shall never link yourself to a man who has been obliged to bow his head
in shame before you, but by the mercy that informs that dear glance and
trembling lip, do you think you can ever grow to forgive me?"

"Oh," she cried, with a burst of sobs, violent as her grief and shame,
"God be merciful to me, as I am merciful to those who repent of their
sins and do good and not evil all the remaining days of their life."

"I thought you would _forgive_ me," murmured he, looking down upon her,
as the miser eyes the gold that has slipped from his paralyzed hand.
"Him whom the hard-hearted sinner and the hypocrite despise, God's
dearest lambs regard with mercy. I learned to revere God before I knew
you, Paula, but I learned to love Him in the light of your gentleness
and your trust. Rise up now and let me wipe away your tears--my
daughter."

She sprang up as if stung. "No, no," she cried, "not that; I cannot bear