"You know why I have not?"

She did not answer.

"I have been afraid. It's the only thing in the world I've ever
been afraid of."

"Why should you have been?"

"I dreaded to know how you might feel. It has caused a difficulty
with every one so far. It separated me from my friends among the
Bible students. It separated me from my professors, my pastor. It
has alienated my father and mother. I did not know how you would
regard it."

"Have I not known it all the time? Has it made any difference?"

"Ah! but that might be only your toleration! Meantime it has become
a question with me how far your toleration will go--what is back of
your toleration! We tolerate so much in people who are merely
acquaintances--people that we do not care particularly for and that
we are never to have anything to do with in life. But if the tie
begins to be closer, then the things we tolerated at a distance--
what becomes of them then? "

He was looking at her steadily, and she dropped her eyes. This was
another one of the Prodigal's assumptions--but never before put so
pointedly.

"So I have feared that when I myself told you what I believe and