"By God?"
"By whom else?"
"How dare man," said I, "speak for the Almighty?"
"How is man to know?"
"That's a hard question," said I. "I can only think of answering
it by saying that a man knows of God's forgiveness by the measure
of the Peace of God in his soul."
"There's none of it in mine, my dear chap, and never will be,"
said Boyce.
I strove to help him. For what other purpose had he come to me?
"You think then that the sending of Betty is a sign and a promise?
Yes. Perhaps it is. What then?"
"I must accept it as such," said he. "If there is a God, He would
not give me back the woman I love, only to take her away again.
What shall I do?"
"In what way?" I asked.
"She offered to marry me. I am to give her my answer to-morrow. If
I were the callous, murdering brute that everyone would have the
right to believe I am, I shouldn't have hesitated. If I hadn't
been a tortured, damned soul," he cried, bringing his great fist
down on the bed, "I shouldn't have come here to ask you what my
answer can be. My whole being is infected with horror." He rose
and stood over the bed and, with clenched hands, gesticulated to
the wall in front of him.
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