led, I hung back. I was afraid, who had never known
fear before. I had no excuse for refusing to go. I was a servant of the
public, and my presence was demanded. To trump up a subterfuge would be
to acknowledge to myself that I was a coward. I went.

"She received me in the same room. This time she was snugly settled in a
large, easy chair, and the unbound glory of her hair swept down over the
rich-hued house dress which she wore. This visit was considerably longer
than the first. You know that a family physician very often shares the
most intimate confidences of his patients. This day she told me
something of her life; enough to lead me to believe that she was
unhappily married, and that she and her husband were not congenial. A
ready resentment sprang up in me towards the man who could call this
superb being his, and then neglect her. So the wiles of Delilah were
employed again, though at the time I did not suspect her.

"Then there grew in my heart a strange passion for this woman. Love
strove to mount, but it quickly discovered that that which it was called
upon to meet was not love. Then the devils of the flesh tore at me and
strove to drive me on--to utter and complete damnation! They had arisen
insiduously, arming themselves as they advanced, and I soon found myself
in the throes of a struggle as old as the world of creation, and more
difficult to overcome than any foe which might appear from without.
These devils haunted, harassed, goaded and tortured me. They drove me to
her again and again, and again and again I withstood them, holding fast
to the sense of right within me, and striking back with all the moral
strength of my nature. Then one day it was borne in upon me that I must
yield--or retreat. No mere mortal could continue to face this most
powerful of all earthly temptations, and keep himself unspotted. The
last night we were together in Jericho she confessed her love for me,
and offered me the bitter-sweet joy of her arms. Then a living God of
mercy gave me the victory. Long ago I knew I did not love her. I knew
that my feeling for her was born in hell--in the blackest and foulest
corner thereof! She stood before me arrayed in voluptuous robes, the
splendour of her perfect physical beauty dazzling me cruelly, and told
me unabashed that she was mine, body and soul! I swear to you that I had
never said one word of love to her. I looked upon her, and the devils
surged to the attack with thong and goad. But