turned upon this sin with loathing!  I know that I am ready to take up my burden where I left it years ago.  I know that I would do anything to atone for the evil which I have wrought to others.  I mean, if it seem good to you, here and now to claim as my bride her into whose life I have brought a world of sorrow.  I mean, if God permits me, to live quietly and patiently among you until I have so recruited my spiritual strength that I can go forth into the great world of sorrow and of sin which I have seen, and extend to others a hand of helpfulness such as was stretched out to me at the moment of my need; but if there is any one here to whom God has given a message for me, whether it be to approve or condemn my course, I trust that I shall have grace to receive it meekly.”

He took his seat, and it seemed for a few moments that every person in the room had yielded heart and judgment to this noble and modest appeal.  But there was among them one whose stern and unyielding sense of justice had not been appeased.  He was a man who had often suffered for righteousness sake and who attached more value to the testimony of a clear conscience than to any earthly dignity.  He slowly and solemnly rose.  His form was like that of a prophet of ancient days.  His deep-set eyes glowed like two bright stars under the cloudy edge of his broad-brimmed hat.  His face was emaciated with a self-denial that bordered upon asceticism, and wan with ceaseless contemplations of the problems of life, death and immortality.  Not a trace of tender emotion was evident on features, which might have been carved in marble.  It was impossible to conceive that he had ever been young, and there seemed a bitter irony in the effort of such a man to judge the cause of a love like that which pleaded for satisfaction in the hearts of David and Pepeeta, and to pronounce upon the destinies of those whose souls were still throbbing with passion.

But such was the purpose of the man.  His first words sounded on the stillness like an alarm bell and shook the souls of listeners with a sort of terror.

“We did not seek to try this cause,” he said.  “It was brought before us by the wish of this sinful man himself.  But if we must judge, let us judge like God!  We read of Him—­that he ’lays righteousness to the line and judgment to the plummet.’  Let us do the same.  That a great wrong hath been done is evident to every mind.  It is not meet that such wrongs should go unpunished!  These two transgressors have suffered; but who believes that such wrongs may justly be so soon followed by felicity?  It would be an encouragement to evil-doers and a premium upon vice!  Who would refrain from violently rending the marriage bonds or sundering any sacred tie, if in a few short months the fruit of the guilty deed might be eaten in peace by the culprit?  What assurance may we have that the lesson which has been but superficially graven on this guilty heart may not be obliterated in the