"
"Would to Heaven I were worthy of you! I dare not think of where you
might be called to follow me, Ruth."
"'Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge:
thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God,'" she rejoined in a
low voice.
"'Thy God my God!'" he repeated after her slowly. He suddenly wondered if
his God was her God; whether now, in his trouble, he had that comfort
which his creed and profession should give him. For the first time he
felt acutely that his choice of this new life might have been more a
reaction from the past, a desire for expiation, than radical belief that
this was the right and only thing for him to do. And when, some time
after, he bade Ruth good-bye, as she went with her father, it came to him
with appalling conviction that his life had been a mistake. The twist of
a great wrong in a man's character distorts his vision; and if he has a
tender conscience he magnifies his misdeeds.
In silence Roscoe and I watched the two ride down the slope. I guessed
what had happened: afterwards I was told all. I was glad of it, though
the end was not yet promising.
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