His companion was silent.
"You despise me, Miss Bright," he continued. "I deserve your contempt, I know. But I would do anything in the power of man to do now, if I could undo the past, and have a life as blameless as your own."
He glanced at his companion.
"What a brute I have been," he exclaimed, "to pour my ugly story into your ears!"
"I am glad you told me," she assured him. She looked up with new sympathy and understanding. "You are going to live down your past now, Mr. Hastings. We'll begin here and now. You will not speak of this again unless it may be a relief to you. The matter will not cross my lips."
She flashed upon him a radiant smile. She believed in him. He could hardly comprehend it.
"You do not despise me? You forgive my past?" He looked into her face.
"It is God who forgives. Why should I despise whom God forgives?"
"If ever I find my way to God," he said in a low voice, "it will be through you."
She quoted softly: