"I will go soon, and not return; for my presence here would only make you unhappy."
"No," he urged, "return to Gila.
"You say you regard marriage as very solemn. So do I. You say you would feel it wrong to marry one you did not love. So should I."
"I have been candid with you," she said in evident distress. To which he responded bitterly:
"You think me a godless wretch. Well, I guess I am. But I had begun to grope after God, and stumbled in my darkness. I have been beset with tormenting doubts. The idea of God is so vast I cannot grasp even a fraction of it. You are right. I am godless."
"No, no, not godless," she said. "Jesus of Nazareth, what of Him?"
"I am coming to look upon him as a brother. I could have loved him profoundly, had I known him when he was on earth. But it all seems so far away in the past. To tell the truth, I have read the Bible very little."
"Read it," she urged.
"I should feel all the time that religion had placed a great gulf between you and me, and hate it in consequence. Ought religion to place a gulf between human souls?"
"The lack of religion might." Silence followed. Then she continued, "If I loved you, loved you deeply enough, that would sweep away all obstacles."