back door. He would have been quite willing that I should 'let him down by the wall in a basket,' after the manner of Saul's escape from his enemies at Damascus. Barry is somewhat nervous to-day, anyway. He came to tell me that his father has disowned him."
"Because of his conversion to socialism?"
"Yes, and because of his adherence to me and to my cause, and because of his friendly relations with Mrs. Bradley."
"I'm sorry. How does he take it?"
"Like a hero. But, Miss Tracy, I can't get it out of my mind that in some way I am responsible for his misfortunes. Perhaps I should not have encouraged him, perhaps I should not have permitted him, to cast in his lot with us."
"You have no cause for self-accusation on that account, Mr. Farrar. You have set up a standard under which all men, whether wise or foolish, should not hesitate to gather. You cannot discriminate. To do so would be destructive to your cause."
"In these distressing times I have even had doubts concerning the righteousness of my cause."
She looked up at him in alarm. Had the fight been too strenuous for him, the strain too severe? Was he, after all, about to yield? to become just common clay? She, herself, had come to the rectory, despondent and despairing, to obtain new courage and strength from him. The burden of the suffering that she had witnessed during these last terrible weeks was crushing the leaven of optimism out of her heart. Were they both now to go weakly down together to defeat and disaster? A wave of stubborn aggressiveness swept into her soul. She would not permit it. She would not listen to so sinister a suggestion. She would rise in her own strength and save both him and herself.
"You have no right," she declared, "to say that. Why do you harbor such a doubt?"
"Because it seems to me that if God were with me
