said. He agreed. He seemed touched. I must have appeared to him a
miserable creature.

"Next day this same father was conducting a meditation--on 'the
condescension of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.' I was kneeling, half
stupefied, when I heard him tell a story of the Cure d'Ars. After the
procession of Corpus Christi, which was very long and fatiguing, someone
pressed the Cure to take food. 'I want nothing,' he said. 'How could I be
tired? I was bearing Him who bears me!' 'My brothers,' said Father
Stuart, turning to the altar, 'the Lord who bore the sin of the whole
world on the Cross, who opens the arms of His mercy now to each separate
sinful soul, is _there_. He beseeches you by me, "Choose, My children,
between the world and Me, between sin and Me, between Hell and Me. Your
souls are Mine: I bought them with anguish and tears. Why will ye now
hold them back from Me--wherefore will ye die?"'

"My whole being seemed to be shaken by these words. But I instantly
thought of Marie. I said to myself, 'She is alone--perhaps in despair.
How can I save myself, wretched tempter and coward that I am, and leave
her in remorse and grief?' And then it seemed to me as though a Voice
came from the altar itself, so sweet and penetrating that it overpowered
the voice of the preacher and the movements of my companions. I heard
nothing in the chapel but It alone. 'She is saved!' It said--and again
and again, as though in joy, 'She is saved--saved!'

"That night I crept to the foot of the crucifix in my little cell.
'_Elegi, elegi: renuntio!_'--I have chosen: I renounce.' All night long
those alternate words seemed to be wrung from me."

There was deep silence. Helbeck knelt on the grass beside Laura and took