"

"Forgive, you mean, Barney."

"Well, forgive, if you like," he replied sullenly.

"Barney," replied Margaret earnestly, "this is unworthy of you, and
in the face of God's mercy to-day how can you hold resentment in your
heart?"

"How can I? God knows, or the Devil. For three years I have fought it,
but it is there. It is there!" He struck his hand hard upon his breast.
"I can't forget that he ruined my life! But for him I believe in my
soul I should have won--her to me! At a critical moment he came in and
ruined--"

"Barney! Barney, listen to me!" cried Margaret impetuously.

Barney sprang to his feet.

"No, you must listen to me. Sit down." Barney obeyed her word and sat
down. "Now, hear me, and hear me fairly. I am not going to say that Dick
was free from blame, nor was Iola either. Whose was the greater I can't
tell. They were both young and, to a certain extent, inexperienced in
the ways of life. Circumstances threw them much together and on terms of
almost brotherly and sisterly intimacy. That was a mistake. They ignored
conventions that can never be safely ignored. Just at that time Dick's
life was made hard for him. His Church had rejected him."

"Rejected him?"

"Yes, rejected him. He was refused license by the Presbytery, was
branded as a heretic and outcast from work." Margaret's voice grew
bitter. "Do you wonder that he grew hard? Perhaps they could not help
it--I can't say--but he grew hard. Yes, and worse than that, grew away
from his faith, from his friends, and from those things that keep men
straight and strong. He grew weak. The hour of temptation came upon him.
You and I have seen enough of that side of life to know what that means.
He broke faith with you--no, not with you. He was loyal to you, but he
broke faith with himself and with her. For a single moment, that moment
at which you appeared, he yielded to passion, and bitterly, terribly,
has he suffered since that moment. How terribly no one knows. He has
tried to find you, but you would not be found. He wronged you, Barney,
but you have made him and all of us suffer much." The voice that had
gone on so bravely and so firmly here suddenly trembled and broke.

"Made you suffer!" cried Barney, with bitter scorn. "How can you speak
of suffering? You have everything! I have lost all!"

"Everything?" echoed Margaret faintly. "Ah, Barney, how little you know!
But, no matter, God has brought you together and you must not do this
wicked th