"All a man may be to his sister, I am ready to be to you. I will write to you from Canada; you can answer me or not as you please. My heart cries out to me to take you in my arms and comfort you, but I must not; it would not comfort you." "You do not despise me, then?--Oh, thank you!" "Despise you!--no more than my dead sister! I would cherish you as I would her were she in like sorrow. I would die to save you this grief--except indeed that I hope much from it." "Forget all about me," said Christina, summoning pride to her aid. "I will not forget you. It is impossible, nor would I if I could." "You forgive me then, and will not think ill of me?" "How forgive trust? Is that an offence?" "I have lost your good opinion! How could I degrade myself so!" "On the contrary, you are fast gaining my good opinion. You have begun to be a true woman!" "What if it should be only for--" "Whatever it may have been for, now you have tasted truth you will not turn back!" "Now I know you do not care for me, I fear I shall soon sink back into my old self!" "I do care for you, Christina, and you will not sink back into your old self. God means you to be a strong, good woman--able, with the help he will give you, to bear grief in a great-hearted fashion. Believe me, you and I may come nearer each other in the ages before us by being both true, than is possible in any other way whatever." "I am miserable at the thought of what you must think of me! Everybody would say I had done a shameless thing in confessing my love!" "I am not in the way of thinking as everybody thinks. There is little justice, and less sympathy, to be had from everybody. I would think and judge and feel as the one, my Master. Be sure you are safe with me." "You will not tell anybody?" "You must trust me." "I beg your pardon! I have offended you!" "Not in the least. But I will bind myself by no promises. I am bound already to be as careful over you as if you were the daughter of my father and mother. Your confession, instead of putting you in my power, makes me your servant." By this time Christina was calm. There was a great load on her heart, but somehow she was aware of the possibility of carrying it. She looked up gratefully in Ian's face, already beginning to feel for him a reverence which made it easier to forego the right to put her arms round him. And therewith awoke in her the first movement of divine relationship--rose the first heave of the child-heart toward the source of its being. It appeared in the form of resistance. Complaint against God is far nearer to God than indifference about him. "Ian Macruadh," said Christina solemnly, and she looked him in the eyes as she said it, "how can you believe there is a God? If there were, would he allow such a dreadful thing to befall one of his creatures? How am I to blame? I could not help it!" "I see in it his truth and goodness toward his child. And he will let you see it. The thing is between him and you."