“Walda, I command thee, let the fountains of thy tears wash away this earthly love!” Wilhelm Kellar cried, rising from his chair and lifting his arms as if he were beseeching the intervention of Heaven. “Nay, I cannot repent. There is that which tells me this is the love that is stronger than death,” Walda said, softly. “Father, I crave thy forgiveness, and the forgiveness of all that belong to Zanah.” She went to him and knelt humbly before him. Gerson Brandt stood with arms folded across his breast and head bowed over them. Karl Weisel gathered some of the other elders close to him and talked to them in whispers. The people looked on breathlessly. Suddenly, from her place among the women, arose Mother Kaufmann. “Behold the unfaithful one asking for forgiveness,” she cried, in rage. “Through her vanity and her weakness the divine messages that were to direct Zanah how to prosper are withheld from the colony. Our crops may fail and we may starve, but she careth for naught if she may love a man. She hath chosen a stranger sent by Satan from the outside world to confound us.” Cries of derision and reproach were heard among the women. At first they were but low mutterings. Then an old hag jumped upon a bench and shouted: “Send her back to the room where the watchers can guard her. Cast the stranger out of Zanah.” “Yea, yea, cast out Satan’s messenger,” shouted the women. The men took up the cry, and in a moment the orderly crowd of religionists became a mob of fanatics which pressed towards the platform. “Repent, repent!” shouted the people. “Remember thy duty!” “Put aside thy sinful love!” “Ask the Lord to forgive thee for thy transgression!” Walda faced the angry mob fearlessly. Her personality still impressed the people, so that none dare lay hands upon her. “Let the curse of Heaven descend upon the head of the stranger in Zanah!” Mother Kaufmann shrieked. “Curse him! Curse him!” called out the men, repeating the woman’s imprecation. In an instant Walda compelled silence. She raised her arms in a warning gesture, and shamed the people by the contempt she showed for their weakness as she looked down upon them. “How are ye fitted to judge the stranger in Zanah?” she asked, in a scornful tone. “Have ye the Christian charity the Bible enjoins you to cherish in your hearts? If there is any one to be blamed for the loss of your prophetess it is I, Walda Kellar, that should bear it all. But again I tell you there is naught concerning love of which I would repent.” “She would defy Heaven!” shouted Mother Kaufmann. “Let the elders take her away that the sight of her shall not breed sinful thoughts of love in the hearts of the maidens of Zanah.” “Yea, lock her up until she cometh to her right mind,” said the old hag, waving her hands to invite the elders’ attention.