commanded again. But she shook her head, holding him still
with her gaze.

"God in heaven!" cried Dick. "Go away!" He made to push her from him.
She clasped him about the neck, allowing herself to sink in his arms
with her face turned upward to his. Fiercely he crushed her to him, and
again and again his hot, passionate kisses fell upon her face.

Conscious only of the passion throbbing in their hearts and pulsing
through their bodies, oblivious to all about them, they heard not the
opening of the door and knew not that a man had entered the room. For
a single moment he stood stricken with horror as if gazing upon death
itself. Turning to depart, his foot caught a chair. Terror-smitten,
the two sprang apart and stood with guilt and shame stamped upon their
ghastly faces.

"Barney!" they cried together.

Slowly he came back to them. "Yes, it is I." The words seemed to come
from some far distance. "I couldn't wait. I came for my answer, Iola.
I thought I could persuade you better. I have it now. I have lost
you! And"--here he turned to Dick--"oh, my God! My God! I have lost my
brother, too!" he turned to depart from him.

"Barney," cried Dick passionately, "there was no wrong! There was
nothing beyond what you saw!"

"Was that all?" inquired his brother quietly.

"As God is in heaven, Barney, that was all!"

Barney threw a swift glance round the room, crossed to a side table, and
picked up a Bible lying there. He turned the leaves rapidly and handed
it to his brother with his finger upon a verse.

"Read!" he said. "You know your Bible. Read!" His voice was terrible and
compelling in its calmness.

Following the pointing finger, Dick's eyes fell upon words that seemed
to sear his eyeballs as he read, "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust
after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."
Heart-smitten, Dick stood without a word.

"I could kill you now," said the quiet, terrible voice. "But what need?
To me you are already dead."

When Dick looked up his brother had gone. Nerveless, broken, he sank
into a chair and sat with his face in his hands. Beside him stood Iola,
pale, rigid, her eyes distended as if she had seen a horrid vision. She
was the first to recover.

"Dick," she said softly, laying her hand upon his head.

He sprang up as if her fingers had been red-hot iron and had burned to
the bone.

"Don't touch me!" he cried in vehement frenzy. "You are a devil! And I
am in hell! In h