“I am sorry to see you like this,” he said, “what is the matter?”

“I don’t know.”

“Doesn’t the doctor know?”

She shook her head with a faint smile.  “Sit down, Henrik, I want to talk to you,” she said.

He took the low chair by her side.  The mother looked at them from the door-way, but did not come out.

“I want you to forgive me,” she said.

“That has been done long ago.”

“Thank you—­now listen.  I have been wrong, wickedly wrong, it seems to me—­listen!  I have not been honest, neither with you, nor myself, nor with the Lord—­which is the worst of all.  I understood much that you taught me of the restored gospel—­It seemed so easy to my understanding; but my pride was in the way, and I would not accept the light.  I pushed it away.  I kept saying to myself, ‘It isn’t true,’ when I knew all the time that it was.  That’s the sin I have committed.”

“My dear—­”

“You remember that book you asked me to read?  Well, I read it through, though I led you to believe that I did not.  It is a beautiful book, and true, every word. * * * Perhaps you will not believe me when I tell you that I have been a number of times to your meetings in Osterhausgade.  Once when you were there—­I thought you would see me,” she smiled.  “And I could find no faults, though at first I went looking for them * * * Now, I’ve told you.  You have forgiven me, you say; but will the Lord?”

“Yes; the Lord is good.”

“When I get better—­if I do—­I am going to join the Church as you have done.  That is the right thing to do, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“And then, may I go to where you and your cousin Rachel are working for the dead?  When—­when are you to be married?”

“Married?  To whom?”

“Why, to your cousin Rachel.  Are you not going to marry her?”

“Certainly not—­never thought of it for a moment.”

“Oh, dear, I must have made another mistake.  Forgive me.”  She lay back on her cushions.

“Marie, when I get married, it’s you I want for my wife.  I have told you that before, and I haven’t changed my mind.  You shall be mine, if you will come back to the sweet days of long ago.  Will you?”

He leaned over the couch, and she drew his face to hers.  “Yes,” she whispered.

At the end of an hour’s conversation wherein much had been said, Marie asked:  “May I go with you to the temple and there help you in the work you are doing?  I believe I could help a little.”

It was at that moment that the curtain lifted from the eyes of the mortal, and Henrik saw for an instant into the pre-existent world.  A group of spiritual beings was eagerly engaged in conversation, and from out that group he heard the voice of one answering Marie’s question.

“Yes; I think so; but we shall see.”

XV.

  “A friend of mine in his journey is come to me.”—­Luke 11:6.