Satan considered Sin and them. “Where is your sense of humor, Old Original, that you explain them to _me_? I can’t say that I should have regretted Amor. We have all varieties of him down the Lane of Labors. But Innocentia! You might have appreciated that I seldom get a chance to see her wings flutter or hear her heart beat from fear. Tell me, you two, what madness is driving you?” “There has been some mistake about the girl Dolores,” Amor declared. “Earth has passed another false judgment. Shouldn’t I know who have been with her since first she met the father of her child?” “You refer, I presume, to her husband?” The love-lad’s head threw back in defiance at the jibe. But Innocentia flushed as she took up the defense. “I have been with our dear Dolores always, more a part of her than the blood in her veins, since that has ceased to flow and I am come with her into Shadow Land. She has heeded all my cautions against the wiles of men. Never once has she offended me.” “More sinned against than sinning, eh?” His Highness plucked an imaginary tear from one eye. “Often as a woman has been damned have I heard that plea.” “Only see for yourself, Sire, how she shrinks from your touch--how she suffers. We pray you, release her.” “Little pest, don’t you know that I enjoy defying you?” Even as he scoffed, however, his clasp of the mother relaxed. He ascended the steps and reseated himself in the throne chair. “Innocence and love--certainly a strange companionship,” he observed. “Odd that they don’t fade out, when they are less material than the dimmest spirit in the inter-world. Shoo them back whence they came, ushers. We must get to the case in hand.” “Oh, I beg you, sir, let them stay!” Dolores interceded. “You’ll find that they enter and exit quietly as thoughts of the mind.” “Thoughts of the mind get very much in my way,” Satan snapped. At his show of impatience, Innocentia pressed her lips to the cheeks of the babe. “Do not distress yourself, Dolores dear. It is best that we should disappear. But in Gehenna, as on Earth and in the Fields, we see no gates and acknowledge no commands.” “Always remember,” Amor added, “the great love of John Cabot. Send him the strength of your good faith. In your late life it did seem that he forsook you. But when he comes to the mystery world, he will seek you, never fear.” “I shall remember,” Dolores assured them in a low aside. “That night we said our vows, I swore that I believed. Despite appearances, Amor, I do--I _must_ believe.” Old Original approached them. “Why unwind these fare-ye-wells when your taxi’s waiting? Accept my arm to the door, Miss Innocentia. You look almost overcome.” Waggishly he escorted her out. The while His Majesty’s frown lowered to the pygmean pair salaaming before the dais. As in one whine they put the formal demand: “To what futile labors, O King, shall we consign these recruits?”