gone to him for the analysis of her own
state of mind, she had been comforted to learn that she placed no
impediment in the way of public justice through being privately
merciful.

"The mission of Christ, me dear Mrs. Thor, was salvation. And what do we
mean by salvation? Isn't it the state of being saved? And what do we
want to be saved from? Isn't it from trouble and evil of all kinds? And
where and when do we want to be saved from them? Isn't it right here and
right now? And who are the people that need most to be saved? Isn't it
those that are threatened with danger? And who is to save them? Isn't it
you and I? What more do you ask?"

"So that when it comes to justice--"

"Ah, now, I'm not botherin' about justice. Justice has her sword and her
scales. Let her look after her own affairs. What you and I are out after
is good will."

So Lois got further light upon her way and followed it. She followed it
the more easily because her father-in-law seemed willing to follow it,
too. He could do this with a touching grace since more fully than by
letter she assured him that Claude had come back to redeem his word.

"Oh, thank God!" Ena had exclaimed, on hearing this information
emphasized. "The darling boy was always the soul of honor."

An ethereal vision in black, she was having a cup of tea in the library
before going up-stairs to take off her traveling-dress. Thor, who had
met the party at the dock, had accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Willoughby to
their own house, so that Lois was able to get a few words with the
sorrowing parents alone, giving them in fuller detail that which her
letters had only sketched. She had assumed the privilege of the daughter
of the house to sit at the tea-table, while for the minute the returned
voyagers took their place as guests.

There were reasons now why Archie was able to echo his wife's rejoicing
in Claude's change of heart. In this new turn to the situation, which he
had but imperfectly seized from what had been written, he could get the
same kind of consolation that a father draws from the death of a son in
a war with which he has no sympathy. It was the death of a brave man,
when all was said and done. It was also death in conditions that made
his own position the stronger, since it was an aid to the clearing of
his conscience. It detracted nothing from his grief that he should use
Claude's yearning for redemption as a fresh proof that Jasper Fay had
not even a shadowy motive for