"No, no," murmured two or three, unwilling, in that supreme hour, to give pain to a fellow-sufferer. But Kaspar said more frankly, "To confess the truth, we none of us thought you were a religious man, Baron Thomassian." "I was _not_. I lived for the things seen, not for the things unseen, which are eternal. Very early I said to myself, 'I am an Armenian, one of an oppressed, down-trodden race. I cannot rise, make a mark in the world, and win its splendid prizes. Yet I have brains. I have the power to will, to plan, to execute. What can I do?' There was but one answer--'I can get wealth, and wealth means safety, enjoyment, influence.' So I tried to get wealth, and I got it by honest industry. At least in the beginning, my hands were clean enough. I prospered; I surrounded myself with comforts, with luxuries. I took to wife a lady, whom--God help me!--I love as truly as any man among you loves his own. But--ah me!--I forgot God." "So no doubt have we all, some more, some less," said Kaspar Hohanian. "If there is any one here who feels _that_, let him look up and take comfort," Thomassian went on, "for not one among you has gone from Him so far as I. But, though I forgot Him, He has remembered me. I was led on from one thing to another; until, for the sake of gain, I did some things of which the thought can sting me even now. I was hard upon the poor, and upon my debtors. I did wrong in various ways, and even to some who trusted me. Mr. John Grayson, you are one of those I wronged." Jack started at the unexpected utterance of his name. "It is no time now to think of wrongs," he said. "No, for him who has suffered--yes, for him who has done the wrong. After that time I saw you in Biridjik, I went indeed to Aleppo, but I did not take your letter with me, nor did I speak for you to the Consul. For he and I, just then, were at daggers drawn. I had used his name and influence, and the presence of his dragoman, to pass through the Custom House some prohibited drugs. He was angry, and with reason. I did not dare to face him. I wanted to be rid of your letter, for fear of complications; so I just dropped it into the post office at Tel Bascher, where I have little doubt it lies until this day." "Then my friends have _not_ been false to me," Jack said, much moved. "And, if my letter had come to them, they might have saved me--and Shushan," his heart added. Thomassian came over close to him, and stretched out his hand. "Can you forgive me?" he asked. Jack was silent for just a moment. Then he said slowly, "'_As_ we forgive them that trespass against us.' Yes, Baron Thomassian, I _do_ forgive you, in His name whom we hope so soon to see." "But, oh! how I wish you had spoken!" he could not help thinking, tho' he crushed back the words in time. "Don't think it would have made a difference," he said. "I _do_ forgive you, with all my heart."