"Oh, my dear!" she cried, her cheeks wet with tears, "how dreadful--how horrible! Oh, Helen, darling, my poor darling!" Lois did not stop to consider the theological side of the matter, which was a relief to Helen.

She tried to quiet the young girl's distress, holding her bright head against her breast, and soothing her with gentle words.
"If I were you," Lois said at last, "I would go back to Lockhaven; I would _go_, if it had to be in disguise!"-- "Not if you loved John," Helen answered.
"How can you bear it ?" Lois whispered, looking up into the calm face with a sort of awe which checked her tears.

"It is so cruel, Helen, you cannot forgive him." "There is nothing to forgive; I hoped you would understand that, Lois.
John cannot do anything else, don't you see?
Why, I would not love him as I do, if, having such convictions, he was not true to them.

He must be true before anything else." Lois was sitting on the floor in front of her, clasping her knees with her arms, and rocking back and forth.

"Well," she cried hotly, "I don't understand anything about his convictions, but I tell you what it is, Helen, I do understand how hard it is for you! And I can never forgive him, if you can.