“What truths do you mean?” asked Helen earnestly; and he answered her: “For one, the very fearful fact of which I have just been talking--that you and I are two bubbles that meet for an instant upon the whirling stream of time. Suppose, sweetheart, that I were to tell you that I do not think you and I would be living our lives truly, until we were quite sure that we could bear to be parted forever without losing our faith in God's righteousness?” Helen turned quite white, and clutched the other's hands in hers; she had not once thought of actually applying what he had said to her. “David! David!” she cried, “No!” The man smiled gently as he brushed back the hair from her forehead and gazed into her eyes. “And when you asked for sternness, dear,” he said, “was it that you did not know what the word meant? Life is real, dear Helen, and the effort it demands is real effort.” The girl did not half hear these last words; she was still staring at her husband. “Listen to me, David,” she said at last, still holding his hand tightly in hers, her voice almost a whisper; “I could bear anything for you, David, I know that I could bear _anything_; I could really die for you, I say that with all my soul,--that was what I was thinking of when you spoke of death. But David, if you were to be taken from me,--if you were to be taken from me--” and she stopped, unable to find a word more. “Perhaps it will be just as well not to tell me, dear heart,” he said to her, gently. “David,” she went on more strenuously yet, “listen to me--you must not ever ask me to think of that! Do you hear me? For, oh, it cannot be true, it cannot be true, David, that you could be taken from me forever! What would I have left to live for?” “Would you not have the great wonderful God?” asked the other gently--“the God who made me and all that was lovable in me, and made you, and would demand that you worship him?” But Helen only shook her head once more and answered, “It could not be true, David,--no, no!” Then she added in a faint voice, “What would be the use of my having lived?”