or would you pursue them fearlessly to the end--even, if need be,
unto death?"

A sudden, intense light leaped into her eyes. She put forth her
hand, which she had withdrawn gently from his ardent clasp, and
laid it lightly upon his shoulder.

"It is not what I would do, what I would say, Anthony. The charge
is given by the Spirit of God: 'Be thou faithful unto death, and I
will give thee the crown of life.'"

He took her hand and kissed it passionately.

"That crown will I win, my Freda," he cried, "for I will be
faithful unto death!"

There was a curious mingling of tenderness and admiration in the
glance she bent upon him. He was a goodly youth to look at, tall
and strongly knit in figure, upright as a young spruce fir, with a
keen, dark-skinned face, square in outline and with a peculiar
mobility of expression. The eyes were black and sparkling, and the
thick, short, curling hair was sombre as the raven's wing. There
was no lack of intellect in the face, but the chief characteristic
was its eager intensity of ever-changing expression.

The girl facing him was as straight and almost as tall as he, but
slender and graceful as a young deer. Her hood had fallen back from
her chestnut locks, which glistened in the sunshine like burnished
copper. Her eyes were of a curious tawny tint, not unlike the
colour of her hair, and her complexion was delicately fair, just