-grown, slender, with praiseworthy body; one noble, with
brilliant face, as fair in body as the loveliest.

"And to her speaks the soul of the pure man, questioning her who
she might truly be. And thus replies to him His Own Law, shining,
dove-eyed, loveliest: 'I am thy thoughts and works; I am thine own
Law of thine own Self. Thou art like me, and I am like thee in
goodness, in beauty, in all that I appear to thee. Beloved, come!'

"And the soul of the pure man takes one step and is in the First
Paradise, Humata; and takes a second step, and is in the Second
Paradise, Hukhta; and takes a third step, and is in the Third
Paradise, Hvarsta.

"And takes one last step into the Eternal Lights for ever."

His haggard eyes were still fixed vacantly on the printed page, but
he saw nothing now. Something in the still air of the room had
arrested his attention--something faintly fresh--an evanescent hint
of perfume.

Suddenly the blood surged up in his face; he half rose, turned
where he lay and looked back at the letter on the floor. "Damn
it," he said. And rising heavily, he went to it, picked it up, and
broke the scented seal.

"Will you misunderstand me, Mr. Berkley? They say that the pages
of friendship are covered with records of misunderstandings.

"We _were_ friends. Can it not be so again? I have thought so
long and so steadily about it that I no longer exactly know whether
I may venture to write to you or whether the only thing decently
left me is silence, which for the second time I am breaking now,
because I cannot believe that I offered my friendship to such a man
as you have said you are. It is not in any woman to do it.
Perhaps it is self-respect that protests, repudiates, denies what
you have said to me of yourself; and perhaps it is a sentiment less
austere. I can no longer judge.

"And now that I have the courage--or effrontery--to write you once
more, will you misconstrue my letter--and my motive? If I cannot
be reconciled to what I hear of you--if what I hear pains,
frightens me out of a justifiable silence which perhaps you might
respect, will you respect my motive for breaking it the less? I do
not know. But the silence is now broken, and I must endure the
consequences.

"Deep unhappiness I have never known; but I recognise it in others
when I see it, and would aid always if I could. Try to understand
me.

"But despair terrifies me--I who never have known it--and I do not
un