“And suppose they had asked you, what would you have said?”

“I would have said I believe Joe’s a changed man, and I hope he will hold out faithful.  And Miss Belle I want to be a Christian, but there are some things about religion I can’t understand.  People often used to talk to me about getting religion, and getting ready to die.  Religion somehow got associated in my mind with sorrow and death, but it seems to me since I have known you and Mr. Clifford the thing looks different.  I got it associated with something else besides the pall, the hearse, and weeping mourners.  You have made me feel that it is as beautiful and valuable for life as it is necessary for death.  And yet there are some things I can’t understand.  Miss Belle will you be shocked if I tell you something which has often puzzled me?”

“I don’t know, I hope you have nothing very shocking to tell me.”

“Well perhaps it is, and maybe I had better not say it.”

“But you have raised my curiosity, and woman like I want to hear it.”

“Now don’t be shocked, but let me ask you, if you really believe that God is good?”

“Yes I do, and to doubt it would be to unmoor my soul from love, from peace, and rest.  It seems to me to believe that must be the first resting place for my soul, and I feel that with me

 “To doubt would be disloyalty
  To falter would be sin.

“But my dear I have been puzzled just as you have, and can say,——­

 “I have wandered in mazes dark and distressing
  I’ve had not a cheering ray my spirit to bless,
  Cheerless unbelief held my laboring soul in grief.”

“And what then?”

 “I then turned to the Gospel that taught me to pray
  And trust in the living word from folly away.

“And it was here my spirit found a resting place, and I feel that in believing I have entered into rest.”

“Ah!” said Mary to herself when Belle was gone, “there is something so restful and yet inspiring in her words.  I wish I had her faith.”

Chapter XVII

“I am sorry, very sorry,” said Belle Gordon, as a shadow of deep distress flitted over her pale sad face.  She was usually cheerful and serene in her manner; but now it seemed as if the very depths of her soul had been stirred by some mournful and bitter memory.  “Your question was so unexpected and—­”

“And what!” said Paul in a tone of sad expectancy, “so unwelcome?”

“It was so sudden, I was not prepared for it.”

“I do not,” said Paul, “ask an immediate reply.  Give yourself ample time for consideration.”