I did not raise my hands
from my sides. I fought them back and after a while found my voice and
told her this could not be. With the spoken words my strength returned,
and I left her thus, without farewell. The next night I came to Macon."

The deep, resonant tones ceased. The silence in the room was acute. Not
even the sound of breathing was audible.

"I found you, whom God sent to be my salvation. The battle was not
ended, though I had put the visible cause of it away. But memory will
not die, and the eyes of the mind constantly behold the visions of
yesterday. Now came the fight to stay away, and I found it just as hard
to win as the other. Had it not been for you, and the hope which I
allowed to find root in my soul, I would surely have succumbed. But this
hope grew, a pure, white flower, and it banished the noisome weeds of
grosser birth. Then a day came when I knew the old influence and the
wild longing no more, for love had found me and had reclaimed me from
the morass into which I had strayed. I need not tell you that I have
gone through perditions of living fire! You, sweet girl, know nothing of
this. But what I said to you upon the lawn not many days ago I say to
you again tonight--_I have come through clean_! It is not a debauched
body and a rotten soul I am bringing as my offering to you tonight. High
heaven bear me witness that all I say is true! I do not claim any
especial worthiness, but I do disclaim and declare false the libelous
stories which Devil Marston brought from Jericho! You have heard the
truth, and I am glad that at last you know."

An inflection almost of despair quivered through his last words. The
girl before him was motionless, but now a rigour shook her from head to
foot, then passed, and she was still looking down, apparently unmoved,
and lifeless.

"There is yet another incident."

He spoke in a dead voice, without ring or timbre. He was hopeless, yet
nerved to go to the last bitter dreg of confession.

"I saw her once while you were in the East with your sick friend--a few
days before the fair. It was quite accidental. I had a call from the
Maddoxes one evening. She was there--had come as a visitor for the
races--some sort of relative. As I was leaving the house a servant told
me a friend wished to see me in the parlour. I did not remain long. The
old charm was there, and I should have been lost without the protection
of your spirit, which armed me as I had never been armed befo