Then he poured into her ears the old, old story, sweetest story ever told, when love speaks and love listens. But Esther's eyes were haunted by a sudden fear. Kenneth paused, and waited for her to speak. Then, with a tightening of the lips, he listened to her answer. She had not thought of love and marriage. She had naturally grown into thinking that she would devote herself to philanthropic work, as her grandfather, before her, had done. "Yes," Kenneth said; "but your grandfather married; and his children married, and you, I take it, are the joy of his life. Suppose he had not married. Would his philanthropic work have been greater?" Then there was more talk, that seemed to give pain to both, for Esther said: "I will go soon, and not return; for my presence here would only make you unhappy." "No," he urged, "return to Gila. "You say you regard marriage as very solemn. So do I. You say you would feel it wrong to marry one you did not love. So should I." "I have been candid with you," she said in evident distress. To which he responded bitterly: "You think me a godless wretch. Well, I guess I am. But I had begun to grope after God, and stumbled in my darkness. I have been beset with tormenting doubts. The idea of God is so vast I cannot grasp even a fraction of it. You are right. I am godless." "No, no, not godless," she said. "Jesus of Nazareth, what of Him?" "I am coming to look upon him as a brother. I could have loved him profoundly, had I known him when he was on earth. But it all seems so far away in the past. To tell the truth, I have read the Bible very little." "Read it," she urged. "I should feel all the time that religion had placed a great gulf between you and me, and hate it in consequence. Ought religion to place a gulf between human souls?" "The lack of religion might." Silence followed. Then she continued, "If I loved you, loved you deeply enough, that would sweep away all obstacles." "And perhaps," he added, "if I had always lived up to the highest ideals of life, I might now be worthy of you. I _am_ unworthy, I confess it." "Oh, don't put it that way," she said in distress. "Let it be that I am not worthy of the love you offer me, not capable of loving enough to--to--marry." "Miss Bright, you are capable of loving, as few women are. It is my misfortune that I have not won your love. I need you to help me live my highest and best. All these months, because of your unconscious influence, I have been learning to see myself as I am, and as I might be. For the first time in my life, I have come in contact with a deeply religious soul, and have felt myself struggling towards the light. I have wrestled with doubt, again and again, bewildered. You teach us that the founder of the Christian religion had compassion on sinful men." "Yes." "But _you_ have no compassion on _me_."