It had been the year of her spirit's Odyssey. And now, when she came at
last to fair haven, marvel fell upon marvel: and the quest of her heart
stood saluting her from the shore. What need had she to ponder or to
justify, she who, setting out to find happiness upon the shining earth,
had so strangely found it among the yet more shining stars?

Very slowly, very delicately, had knowledge unfolded within her. On a
day there had been pain, and nothing. On a day there had been thrilling
peace, and luminous wings beating so strong, so sure....

To love; to love unasked....

She knew that women thought this a shame to them; she had thought it so
herself. Yet could it be? Had he not taught her this, or nothing, that
to give was ever a finer thing than to take? Was it a shame to love what
was lovable, and fine and beautiful and sweet? Ah, no; surely the shame
for her would be, knowing these things now at their value, not to love
them, to hold back thriftily for the striking of a bargain. Was not
here, and no otherwhere, the true badge of the inferior, to measure the
dearest beats of one's heart as a prudent trader measures?

So Cally Heth, the often loved and lovely, was strong to feel on her
wonderful day. Beneath the maiden's invincible reserve, under the mad
sweetness of this unrest, clear upon that Future which was so enveloped
in a golden haze, she felt a pride in her own human worthiness, as one
who now does the best thing of her life. She had always wanted to love
above her: how time and this man had invested her ideal with a richer
meaning!... Was not this the touchstone of that change within herself
she had sought, that day when Colonel Dalhousie's rod had chastened her?

Many symbols of happiness had shone and beckoned about her, and she had
turned her back on all of them to follow a man in a patched coat whose
power was only that he spoke simply of God, and believed in the goodness
of his fellows. Over the gulf that lay between their worlds, this man
had called to her: and now she had made him her last full response,
which was herself. He was the saint in her life; and she had found him
beneath all disguises, and laid her heart at his feet.

* * * * *

Home again; dreams laid by. There was action for a space. Anticipation
painted the world in rose.

It was after four; by the clock on the mantel. Cally stood at the
window, dressed, waiting. She was bound for a workers' meeting