lt himself always in her throbbing embrace; passionate upbraidings
of his brother rose again and again in his heart. He did not know
himself any longer. In addition to the reproaches he made himself for
his evil thoughts, came dissatisfaction because he knew he was not
putting his whole mind on his work. Usually he worked his cheerful,
industrious self into each task he performed, and it was bound to be
good and lasting. But today it seemed to him that he was hammering
unrighteous thoughts into his work, that he was forging out of them an
evil charm, and that the result could not be good nor enduring.

The slater must work thoughtfully. The man who undertakes repairs today
must rely upon the faithfulness of him who stood decades, perhaps
centuries ago where he stands now. The lack of conscientiousness that
rivets a roof-hook slovenly today may be the cause of a good man's death
fifty years hence when he hangs his ladder on that hook. Behind the
struggle of his conscience against the visions of his sinful dream
lurked, like a dark cloud, the fear that in his distraction he might be
forging a future disaster for somebody.

His work was done. The new tin decoration gleamed in the sun around
the dark surface of the slate roof. Ring, tackle, swinging-seat and
ladder had been removed; the workmen who had assisted at the removal
had gone again. Apollonius had taken down the "flying" scaffold and
the poles on which it rested; he stood alone on the narrow board which
formed the path from the cross-beam to the roof-door. He stood
thinking. He felt as if he had forgotten to drive in nails somewhere.
He looked in the slate and nail boxes of his swinging-seat which hung
near him on a beam. The sound of a mysterious hurrying step came to
his ears from the tower stairs. He paid no attention to it, for just
then he found a sheet of lead lying among his things. He had brought
with him the exact number of sheets that he needed. So this was
evidently one that he had forgotten; in his distracted state of mind
he had overlooked one of the riveting points. From the door he looked
up and down the surface of the roof. If the mistake had happened on
this side of the tower he could perhaps rectify it without his seat.
Perhaps the ladder would suffice to reach the required point. And so
it proved to be. About six feet above him, near the roof-hook he had
taken out a slate and had neglected to replace it with a sheet of lead
and to fasten the gar