nae foe!'"

Perhaps the gentle words, and the sadness which he could not entirely
banish from his tone, moved Erica almost more than his passionate
utterances in the morning.

The day was no bad miniature of her whole life. Very sad, very happy,
full of danger, conflict and strife, warmed by outside sympathy, wounded
by outside insolence.

CHAPTER XXI. What it Involved

Stronger than steel
Is the sword of the spirit;
Swifter than arrows
The life of the truth is;
Greater than anger
Is love, and subdueth. Longfellow

The two or three days at Codrington lengthened out into a week, for both
Raeburn and Erica felt a good deal exhausted after the eventful Monday.
Raeburn, anxious to spare her as much as possible, himself wrote to Mrs.
Craigie, and told her of Erica's change of views.

"It is a great grief," he wrote, "and she will be a serious loss to our
cause, but I am determined that we will not enact over again the course
of action which drove both you and me from home. Odd! That she should
just reverse our story! Anyhow, you and I, Jean, have been too much
persecuted to turn into persecutors. The child is as much in earnest for
her delusion as we for our truth. Argument and remonstrance will do no
good, and you must understand, and make Tom understand, that I'll not
have her bullied. Don't think that I am trying to make her mistaken way
all easy for her. She won't find it easy. She will have a miserable time
of it with our own set, and how many Christians, do you imagine, will
hold out a hand to Luke Raeburn's daughter, even though her views have
changed? Maybe half a dozen! Not more, I fancy, unless she renounced us
with atheism, and that she never will do! She will be between two fires,
and I believe between the two she will be worried to death in a year
unless we can keep the peace at home. I don't blame Osmond for this,
though at first I did suspect it was his doing; but this has been no
cram-work. Erica has honestly faced the questions herself, and has
honestly arrived at this mistaken conclusion. Osmond's kindness and
generosity of course influenced her, but for the rest they have only had
the free discussions of which from the first I approved. Years ago he
said to me plainly, 'What if she should see reasons to change her mind?'
I scouted the notion then, it seemed and still seems almost INCREDIBLE.
He has, you see, acted quite honorably. It is Erica's own doing. I
re