messenger from heaven, it was in my lost soul to do the deed this
night."

The wife laid her palms upon her husband's temples, and putting forth
her strength lifted them and looked tenderly into his eyes.

"Dear heart, you do not frighten me. You know how unaccountably fear
deserts me in fearful moments. But I know there's nothing for either of
us to fear now. This is all in your tortured imagination, and there,
though you had not seen me, it would have stayed; you never would have
come to the act. Arthur, your soul is not lost. You who have pointed the
way of escape and deliverance so clearly and savingly to so many, you
need not miss it now yourself."

"Idle words, Isabel,--idle, idle words. The very words of Christ are
idle to me until I give you up."

"Give me up, my husband? Dear love, you cannot! You shall not! I will
not be given up. You haven't the cause, and I haven't the cause."

"Oh, Isabel, I stole you! And the curse of God has gone with the theft,
and with every step of the thief, from the first day till now. From the
first day until now God has lifted that other man up and brought me
down. And yet, before God who said, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
wife, he loves you this moment--now!--with the love of a man for a
woman."

"Arthur, no! If he did"--

"Isabel, if he did not--if he did not love you yet as before he lost