pon the threshold crouched a
slender woman-shape, naked. I flung wide the door and touched her: she
was cold as marble, colder, I dreaded, than any creature of life could
be. Then did she raise her head to show the fairest and saddest face I
have ever beheld. Her eyes were full of tears fast falling, and oh! the
wild, hunted, despairing look they had. "Christian, Christian!" she
wailed. None knew of any such name.

'We lifted her up and led her in and covered her hastily. Her dark hair
was all drenched; recent wet had not dried from her skin. A few flakes of
snow had been drifting down; I noticed some that lay on her shoulders:
they did not melt there. Cold as a marble statue she was, and as white,
and of as beautiful a form as any that man has fashioned, and but for her
sobbing and that one cry of "Christian," one could think as dumb.

'I would have led her to comfort and warmth and food, but she would not:
from touch and question she shrank bewildered and scared; as though the
cloak we had wrapped about her were irksome, she slipped it off once and
again, unashamed of nakedness. Still her tears fell like rain, and heavy
sobs shook her. But as the great bells struck overhead, she caught in
sudden breath and held it while the air throbbed, and thereafter broke
out with her cry: "Christian, Christian!"

'I bade all kneel and pray, that if this were indeed one of God's
creatures, wisdom might be given us to deal with her for her welfare. In
great perplexity I prayed, and some fear. I think it was that utter
coldness of a living body that appalled me most.

'One spoke from her knees. "The name of Christ is in her utterance; no
creature outcast from salvation could frame any such word." Then I said:
"I will take upon me to offer her instant baptism. That may be her need
that she cannot perfectly utter." She did not seem to hear one word when
I spoke to her; I could see her mind was all too unknit for
comprehension; she only cried out as before. But when I turned towards
the altar and took her by the hand, she followed me unresisting.

'So, right before the altar we brought her, and made her kneel among us
all. All our font was a stoup of holy water held at hand. Then I prayed
aloud as God gave me the grace. She ceased to weep; she caught my hand in
hers; I know she heard. In the name of the blessed Trinity I baptized
her, but signed no cross; too suddenly she rose upright; she flung up her
arms with one deep sigh. I cau