“I have thought much and deeply about it,” David responded.  I know not what subtle change has taken place within me, but I know that it has been great and real.  My heart was hard, but now it is tender.  It was full of despair, and now it is full of hope.  I am not as innocent as I was that night when you heard me speak in the old Quaker meeting-house, or rather I am not innocent in the same way.  My heart was then like a spring among the mountains; it had a sort of virgin innocence.  I had sinned only in thought, and in the dreamy imaginations of unfolding youth.  It is different now; a whole world of realized, actualized evil lies buried in the depths of my soul.  It is there, but it is there only as a memory and not as a living force.  There must in some way, I cannot tell how, be a purity of guilt as well as of innocence, and perhaps it is a purity of a still higher and finer kind.  There was a peace of mind which I had as an innocent boy, which I do not possess now; but I have another and deeper peace.  There was a childish courage; but it was the courage of one who had never been exposed to danger.  There is another courage in my heart now, and it is the courage of the veteran who has bared his bosom to the foe!  I know not by what strange alchemy these diverse elements of evil can have become absorbed and incorporated into this newer and better life, but this I do know, and nothing can make me doubt it—­that while I am not so good, yet I am better; while I am not so pure, yet I am purer.  Yes, Pepeeta, I think we can go back on our track.  We can be born again!  We can once more be little children.  I feel myself a little child to-night—­I who, a few days ago, was like an old man, bowed and crushed under a load of wretchedness and misery!  God seems near to me; life seems sweet to me.  Let us begin again, Pepeeta.  We have traveled round a circle, and have come back to the old starting point.  Let us begin again.”

“Oh!  David,” she said, kissing the hands she held; “how like your old self you are to-night.  Your words of hope have filled my soul with joy.  Is it your presence alone that has done it, or is it God’s, or is it both?  A change has come over the very world around us.  All is the same, and yet all is different.  The stars are brighter.  The brook has a sweeter music.  There is something of heaven in this intoxicating cup you have put to my lips!  I seem to be enveloped by a spiritual presence!  Hush!  Do you hear voices?”

The excitement had been too intense for this sensitive woman to endure with tranquillity.  Her heart, her conscience, her imagination had suffered an almost unendurable strain.  She flung herself into the arms of her lover and trembled upon his breast, and he held her there until she had regained her composure.

“Do you really love me yet?” she asked, at length, raising her face and gazing up into his with an expression in which the simple affection of a little child was strangely blended with the passionate love of an ardent and adoring woman.