He that endureth unto the end shall be saved." "What end ?" "Death." She was silent while she gazed at him with change showing on her gradually paling face.
"Then--then what is in thy faith for the forlorn in love ?" she exclaimed.
"Peace, and the consciousness of the joy of Christ in your steadfastness," he said.
She rose.

How much longer had she to live?
"And thou sayest we die ?" "_Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul_," he said gently.
Fear Hesper, then, but not the Roman.

While she stood in the immense debate of heart and conscience he laid a tender hand on her head.
"Perchance in His mercy thou shalt be welcomed there first by thy father, whom I buried, and by thy mother." The sudden recurrence to that past tragedy and the unfolding of his recognition fairly swept Laodice off her feet with shock and alarm.

If he noted her feeling, he was sorry he had not succeeded in comforting her with a promise of reunion with her beloved in that other land.

He took away his tremulous hand from her hair.
Leaving her transfixed with all he had said, he moved painfully away, stiffened by long sitting while he discoursed..