"Have you ever spoken to a murderer?" "Heaven forbid!" said Miss Sabrina. She glanced with suffused eyes towards Ferdie's grave. "It is _such_ a comfort to me to think that though he was in effect murdered, those poor ignorant nig-roes had probably no such intention; it was not done deliberately, by some one who _wished_ to harm him." "I don't believe his murderer will be afraid to face him in the next world," said Eve. She, too, looked towards the mound; she seemed to see Ferdie lying down below, with closed eyes, but the same grimacing lips. "Oh, as to that, they would have so little in common that they wouldn't be thrown much together, I reckon," said Miss Sabrina, hopefully; "I doubt if they even meet." "Your heaven is not like the Declaration of Independence, is it?" said Eve. Miss Sabrina did not understand. She pinched her throat with her thumb and forefinger, and looked vaguely at Eve. "I mean that all men 'are created equal;' your heaven has an outside colony for negroes, and once or twice a week white angels go over there, I suppose, ring the Sunday-school bell, and hold meetings for their improvement." Miss Sabrina colored; she took up her basket. "Forgive me!" said Eve, dropping her sarcasms. "I am unhappy. That is the reason I talk so." "I feared so, my dear; I feared so," answered the gentle lady, melted at once. Eve left her, and wandered across the island to the ocean beach. Low waves came rolling in and broke upon the sand; no ship was in sight; the blue of the water met the horizon line unbroken. She walked southward with languid step; every now and then she would stop, then walk slowly on again. After half an hour a sound made her turn; Paul Tennant was close upon her, not twenty feet distant; the wash of the waves had prevented her from hearing his approach. She stood still, involuntarily turning towards him as if at bay. Paul came up. "Eve, I know what I am about now. I didn't know out there at Jupiter Light; I was dazed; but I soon understood. I went back to the camp, but you were gone. As soon as I could I started after you. Here I am." "You understood? What did you understand?" said Eve, her face deathly white. "That I loved you," said Paul, taking her in his arms. "That is enough for me; I hope it is for you." "That you love me in spite of--" "There is no 'in spite of;' what you did was noble, was extraordinarily brave. A woman is timid; you are timid, though you may pretend not to be; yet with your own hand--" Eve remembered how Cicely had struck her hand down. "You will strike it down, too!" she said, incoherently, bursting into tears. Paul soothed her, not by words, but by his touch. Her whole being responded; she leaned her head against his breast. "To save Cicely you crushed your own feelings; you did something utterly horrible to you. And you faced all the trouble and grief which would certainly come in consequence of it. Why, Eve, it was the bravest thing I have ever heard of."