Only one portion of mankind
has ever believed in Jerusalem; but every religion has known its own
Calvary."
He turned away from the Tree toward her and awaited her
appreciation. She had sat watching him without a movement and without
a word. But when at last she asked him a question, she spoke as a
listener who wakens from a long revery.
"Have you finished the story for me?" she inquired.
"I have finished the story for you," he replied without betraying
disappointment at her icy reception of it.
Keeping her posture, she raised one of her white arms above her head,
turning her face up also until the swanlike curve of the white throat
showed; and with quivering finger tips she touched some sprays of
mistletoe pendent from the garland on the wall:
"You have not interpreted this," she said, her mind fixed on that sole
omission.
"I have not explained that," he admitted.
She sat up, and for the first time looked with intense interest toward
the manuscript on the table across the room.
"Have you explained it there?"
"I have not explained it there."
"But why?" she said with disappointment.
"I did not wish you to read that story, Josephine."
"But why, Frederick?" she inquired, startled into wonderment.
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