"Of course that's plausible, and yet it's radical. Hoover's father was a
bishop, and I think Hoover is just a bit narrow from early training. He
can't see that lots of people who haven't a vestige of humour are
nevertheless worth saving. I admit that saving them will be a thankless
task. God won't be able to take very much pleasure in it, but in strict
justice he will do it--even if Hoover does regard it as a piece of
extravagant sentimentality."

A little later she went in. She left him gazing far off into the night,
filled with his message, dull to memory on the very scene that evoked in
her own heart so much from the old days. And as she went she laughed
inwardly at a certain consternation the woman of her could not wholly
put down; for she had blindly hurled herself against a wall--the wall of
his message. But it was funny, and the message chained her interest. She
could, she thought, strengthen his resolution to give it out--help him
in a thousand ways.

As she fell asleep the thought of him hovered and drifted on her heart
softly, as darkness rests on tired eyes.




CHAPTER XI

THE REMORSE OF WONDERING NANCY


She awoke to the sun, glad-hearted and made newly buoyant by one of