of a
lip--but it was his mother!

He, too, dropped his head, and his own lips trembled. The mother
superior was standing with them before he was aware. For an instant his
voice was suspended, but he told her at length that a great calamity had
befallen them, and begged her to take his wife for a time into her care.

"Charity is our office," said the mother, when she had heard his story.
"Come, my sister, the Church is peace. Your poor laden soul may put off
its load while you are here."

Paul begged to be allowed a moment to say farewell, and the good mother
left them together.

Then from an inner chamber came the solemn tones of an organ and the
full voices of a choir. The softened harmonies seemed to float into
their torn hearts, and they wept. The gray dawn was creeping in. It
blurred the red light of the lamp.

"Good-bye, darling, good-bye!" Paul whispered; but even while he spoke
he clung the closer.

"Good-bye for the present, dear husband," said Greta, and smiled.

"Who would have thought that this calamity could wait for you at the
very steps of God's altar?"

"A day will turn all this evil into good."

"At the threshold of our life together to be torn apart!"

"Think of it no more, dearest. Our lives will yet be the brighter for
this calamity. Do you remember what Parson Christian used to say? The
happiest life is not that which is always in the sunlight, but rather
that over which a dark cloud has once lowered and passed away."

Paul shook his head. "My lips are sealed. You do not know all. It is a
cruel lie that separates us. But what if it can not be disproved?"

Greta's eyes were full of a radiant hopefulness. "It can, and shall!"

Paul bent his head and touched her forehead with his lips. "The past is
a silence that gives back no answer," he said. "My mother alone could
disprove it, and she is dead to the world."

"Not alone, dearest. I can disprove it. Wait and see!"

Paul smiled coldly, and once more shook his head. "You don't know all,"
he said again, and kissed her reverently. "What if to-morrow, and
to-morrow, and to-morrow brings no light to unravel this mystery?"

"Never fear it. The finger of Heaven is in this," said Greta.

"Say, rather, the hand of destiny. And how little we are in the presence
of that pitiless power!"

"God sees all," said Greta. "He has led me in here, and He will guide me
out again."

"What if I brought you for a day, and you remain for a year, for life