lay in famished wait for every word.

"O Jesus," said the voice, as of one struggling with weariness, or one
who speaks her thoughts in a dream, imagining she reads from a book, a
gentle, tired voice--"O Jesus! after all, Thou art there! They told me
Thou wast dead, and gone nowhere! They said there never was such a One!
And there Thou art! O Jesus, what _am_ I to do? Art Thou going to do any
thing with me?--I wish I were a leper, or any thing that Thou wouldst
make clean! But how couldst Thou, for I never quite believed in Thee,
and never loved Thee before? And there was my Paul! oh, how I loved my
Paul! and _he_ wouldn't do it. I begged and begged him, for he was my
husband when I was alive--him to take me and make me clean, but he
wouldn't: he was too pure to pardon me. He let me lie in the dirt! It
was all right of him, but surely, Lord, Thou couldst afford to pity a
poor girl that hardly knew what she was doing. My heart is very sore,
and my whole body is ashamed, and I feel so stupid! Do help me if Thou
canst. I denied Thee, I know; but then I cared for nothing but my
husband; and the denial of a silly girl could not hurt Thee, if indeed
Thou art Lord of all worlds!--I know Thou wilt forgive me for that. But,
O Christ, please, if Thou canst any way do it, make me fit for Paul.
Tell him to beat me and forgive me.--O my Saviour, do not look at me so,
or I shall forget Paul himself, and die weeping for joy. Oh, my Lord!
Oh, my Paul!"

For Paul had gently risen from his chair, and come one step
nearer--where he stood looking on her with such a smile as seldom has
been upon human face--a smile of unutterable sorrow, love, repentance,
hope. She gazed, speechless now, her spirit drinking in the vision of
that smile. It was like mountain air, like water, like wine, like
eternal life! It was forgiveness and peace from the Lord of all. And had
her brain been as clear as her heart, could she have taken it for less?
If the sinner forgave her, what did the Perfect?

Paul dared not go nearer--partly from dread of the consequences of
increased emotion. Her lips began to move again, and her voice to
murmur, but he could distinguish only a word here and there. Slowly the
eyelids fell over the great dark eyes, the words dissolved into
syllables, the sounds ceased to be words at all, and vanished: her soul
had slipped away into some silent dream.

Then at length he approached on tiptoe. For a few moments he stood and
gazed on t