God?

They sat silent for a while, and neither looked in the other's face.
They had struck a sacred chord, and the sweet, powerful sound thrilled
Balder no less than Gnulemah. But presently he looked up; his cheeks
warmed, and his heart swelled out. He was about to put in jeopardy his
most immediate jewel, and the very greatness of the risk gave him
courage. Not to the world, that could not judge him righteously, would
he confess his crime,--but to the woman he loved and who loved him.
Her verdict could not fail to be just and true.

Could a woman's judgment of her lover be impartial? Yes, if her
instincts be pure and harmonious, and her worldly knowledge that of a
child. Her discrimination between right and wrong would be at once
accurate and involuntary, like the test of poison. Love for the
criminal would but sharpen her intuition. The sentence would not be
spoken, but would be readable in eyes untainted alike by prejudice or
sophistry.

Gnulemah was thus made the touchstone of Balder's morality. He stood
ready to abide by her decision. Her understanding of the case should
first be made full; then, if condemned by her look, he would publish
his crime to the world, and suffer its penalty. But should her eyes
absolve him, then was crime an illusion, evil but undeveloped good,
the stain of blood a prejudice, and Cain no outcast, but the venerable
forefather of true freedom.

Unsearchable is the heart of man. Balder had looked forward to
condemnation with a wholesome solemnity which cheered while it
chastened him. But the thought of acquittal, and at Gnulemah's hands,
appalled him. The implicit consequences to humanity seemed more
formidable than the worst which condemnation could bring upon himself.
So much had he lately changed his point of view, that only the fear of
seeing his former creed confirmed could have now availed to stifle his
confession.

But that fear did not much disquiet him; he trusted too deeply in his
judge to believe that she would justify it. In short, Gnulemah was in
his opinion right-minded, exactly in proportion as she should convict
him of being in the wrong. Balder resigned the helm of his vessel,
laden as she was with the fruits of years of thought and speculation,
at the critical moment of her voyage,--resigned her to the guidance of
a woman's unreasoning intuition. He might almost as well have averred
that the highest reach of intellect is to a perception of the better
worth and wisd