If disappointment and disillusion come to her through him, she must face them as she does when they come through herself.

She must be patient, faithful, understanding, tender; helping him, as she would help herself, to start afresh on higher ground; once more, with a holy courage, facing life bravely.
"This is my answer--every true woman's answer--to the subtle suggestions of your letter.
"I admit that often marriages turn out hopeless--impossible; mere prisons of degradation.

But that is when the sacred tie is entered into for other than the essential reasons of a perfect love and mutual need; or without due consideration, 'unadvisedly, lightly, wantonly,' notwithstanding the Church's warning.

Or when people have found out their mistake in time, yet lacked the required courage to break their engagement, as I broke off mine with you, Aubrey; thus saving you and myself a lifetime of regret and misery.
"Oh, cannot you see that the only real 'outer darkness' is the doing of wrong?
Disappointment, loss, loneliness, remorse--all these may be hard to bear, but they can be borne in the light; they do not necessarily belong to the outer darkness.
"May I ask you, as some compensation for the pain your letter has given me, and the terrible effort this answer has cost, to bear with me if, in closing, I quote to you in full the final words of the first chapter of the first epistle of St.John?
I do so with my heart full of hope and prayer for you--yes, even for you, Aubrey.

Because, though _my_ words will probably fail to influence you, God has promised that _His_ Word shall never return unto Him void.
"'If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin....