ed. "So you did get home all right? I like your way
of acting Casabianca! The chieftain sent me tearing out after you, and
when I got there, you had vanished!"

"Brian came up just then," said Erica, "and I thought it better not to
wait. Oh, here comes father."

Raeburn entered as she spoke. No one who saw him would have guessed that
he was an overworked, overworried man, for his face was a singularly
peaceful one, serene with the serenity of a strong nature convinced of
its own integrity.

"Got some tea for us, Eric?" he asked, throwing himself back in a chair
beside the fire.

Some shade of trouble in her face, invisible to any eye but that of a
parent, made him watch her intently, while a new hope which made his
heart beat more quickly sprang up within him. Christians had not shown
up well that day; prosecuting and persecuting Christians are the most
repulsive beings on earth! Did she begin to feel a flaw in the system
she had professed belief in? Might she by this injustice come to realize
that she had unconsciously cheated herself into a belief? If such things
might win her back to him, might bridge over that miserable gulf between
them, then welcome any trouble, any persecution, welcome even ruin
itself.

But had he been able to see into Erica's heart, he would have learned
that the grief which had left its traces on her face was the grief of
knowing that such days as these strengthened and confirmed him in his
atheism. Erica was indeed ever confronted with one of the most
baffling of all baffling mysteries. How was it that a man of such grand
capacities, a man with so many noble qualities, yet remained in the
darkness? One day she put that question sadly enough to Charles Osmond.

"Not darkness, child, none of your honest secularists who live up to
their creed are in darkness," he replied. "However mistakenly, they do
try to promote what they consider the general good. Were you in such
absolute blackness before last summer?"

"There was the love of Humanity," said Erica musingly.

"Yes, and what is that but a ray of the light of life promised to all
who, to any extent, follow Christ? It is only the absolutely selfish who
are in the black shadow. The honest atheist is in the penumbra, and
in his twilight sees a little bit of the true sun, though he calls it
Humanity instead of Christ."

"Oh, if the shadows would but go!" exclaimed Erica.

"Would!" he said, laughing gently. "Why, child, they will, they