They were by this time walking down towards the shore by the little ridge-like path before described. Eustace was behind, and Bride in front, so that she could not see the sudden light which leaped into his eyes; but she heard something new in the tone of his voice as he said-- “Then you do not hold that I have been the ruin of Saul--body and soul, as so many do? You do not think that to take him away with me would be but to consummate that ruin?” “No, indeed I do not,” answered Bride gently. “I think that the people who say such things do not understand you, Eustace. I think you might perhaps do poor Saul more good than anybody just now, because I think he will listen to you, and he will listen to no one else. I should like to think of him going away with you. If you cannot teach him all he will have to learn before he can be a truly happy man, you can teach him a great deal that he will be better for the knowing; and perhaps some day, when the right time has come, he will be ready to be taught the rest.” “Then you do not call me a demagogue, an infidel--a man dangerous to the whole community, and to the world at large?” questioned Eustace, with the insistance of one whose heart has been deeply wounded by accusations hurled against him--all the more deeply from the consciousness that the censure has not been wholly undeserved. “No,” answered Bride softly, “I do not call you any of those names--not even in my thoughts. I know you have not been very wise; I think you know that yourself, and will learn wisdom for the future. But I know that you believed yourself right in what you said and did, and were generous and disinterested in your teaching. About your faith I know very little. I think you know very little yourself; but we can leave that in God’s hands. It does not come by man, or through man, but by the will of God. I think it is His will, Eustace, to draw you to Himself one day; but that day must come in His good time. I think we sometimes make a great mistake in striving to urge and drive those whom we love. Waiting _is_ hard, and sometimes it seems very, very long. But things are so different with God--His patience as well as His love are so much greater than ours. And we can always pray--that helps the time of waiting best.” Eustace was intensely thrilled by these low-spoken words, which he only just caught through the plash of the waves beneath. That magnetic influence which Bride always exercised upon him was almost overpoweringly strong at that moment. He could almost have fallen at her feet in adoration. After the good-natured strictures of Sir Roland, the slight grim reproofs of the Duke, and his knowledge of the cutting criticisms and violent abuse levelled at him by the world of Pentreath, these words of Bride’s fell like balm upon his spirit. He felt lifted into a different atmosphere, and the question could not but present itself to him--