The Witness

ng, Nelly. Do you want to go along?"

the sporting page of the morn

t Tennelly. "It'll do you good. I'd go with you, only I've got to get that condition made u

urch for a morning like this? Court, you're crazy! Let's go and get two

urtland, with his old voice of quiet

oice, and the way Bill Ward kept up win

o," he growle

it. Church won't hurt him any, just give him a good, pious feeling so he'll feel free to do as he pleases during the week. I had a 'phone from Gila this morning. She says he's made another date with her after exams. He fell, all rig

nt. "I s'pose you get your way, but Court's keen intellectually, and if he happens to

ut they're all preaching about politics these days, or raving about uplifting the masses, and that sorta thing won't

arlet ceiling stretched away miles, as it were, in the space above them, and rich carvings in dark, costly wood met the wonderful frescoes at lofty heights. The carpets were soft, and the pews were upholstered in tones to match. A great silence brooded over the place, making itself fe

ted to Stephen Marshall's Christ. This was a voyage of discovery for Courtland, this visit to a Christian church. He had scarcely been to religious services since he entered the university. He had considered them a waste of time. Now he had come to see if there was really anything in them. It did not occur to him that they had a

and sang wonderful music, but they had no heart in their singing. The congregatio

whale, and the Son of Man being three days in the heart of the earth. Courtland wasn't even sure that this reference meant the Christ, and it never entered his head that it touched at the heart of the great doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. As far as he could understand the reverend gentle

eside him and decided that perhaps Bil

suède boots laced high to meet her brief gray skirts, silver hat with a single velvet rose on the brim to match the soft rose-bloom on her cheeks. Gila with eyes as wid

ly, admiringly, when they ha

ed her. A girl who could look like that must be sweet and pure and unspoiled. It had been that unfortunate dress last night that had reminded him unpleasantly of the scarlet woman and the awful night of the fire. If he ever got well enough

So that was the invincible Gila! That little soft-eye

, approvingly, and wished h

o himself. "Old Court's fallen already. Guess I'l

ere bright and his color better than it had been since he was sick. He said nothing about the morning se

he uneasiness within his soul for which he had sought solace in the church service. He be

ed it would. He had taken Tennelly with him because he wanted something tangible, friendly, sane, from the world he knew, to give him ballast. If the Pr

ing out of a manly soul, and saw the calm eyes of the plain mother on the wall opposite, and

ed professor, whom everybody knew to be insincere from the crown of his head to the soles of his sly little feet? Was it because

n tired of waiting, and worried about him. Why hadn't the sense of the Presence gone with him into the room? Would a Presence like that be afra

ely into an influence that would make

with disrespect. Her womanhood should be honored by him even if she chose to dishonor it herself. If he had gone to see Gila with a different attitude toward her, expectin

his father after his mother's death, and assisted in bringing him up until he was old enough to go away to boarding-school. They were a good deal of a bore, coming as they did when he was sleepy. There was a long, vague one beginning, "Our Father which

on that Bible. Strange that when he was in that room all doubt about the Presence van

the fire in the glowing grate of the Dare library. Why had that room affected him so strangely? And Gila, little Gila, how sweet and innocent she had looked when they met her that morning with her prayer-book. How wrong he must have been to t

d ever you s

r shoes and her s

d on to her moth

lm-book wrapped u

Gila's mother! Perhaps people talked about the daughter because of her mother, for she looked it fully! But then a girl c

help her and uplift her till she had the highest standards formed! She was so

r, help her, get her to give up certain daring things she had the name of doing-if such a fellow should give her the protection of his friendship and let the world se

s during the rest of that winter. All thought of any danger to himself through

she was planning a little note which should bring Courtland to her side early in the week. She had no thoughts of God. She was nev