Jack started at the unexpected utterance of his name.
"It is no time now to think of wrongs," he said.
"No, for him who has suffered—yes, for him who has done the wrong. After that time I saw you in Biridjik, I went indeed to Aleppo, but I did not take your letter with me, nor did I speak for you to the Consul. For he and I, just then, were at daggers drawn. I had used his name and influence, and the presence of his dragoman, to pass through the Custom House some prohibited drugs. He was angry, and with reason. I did not dare to face him. I wanted to be rid of your letter, for fear of complications; so I just dropped it into the post office at Tel Bascher, where I have little doubt it lies until this day."
"Then my friends have not been false to me," Jack said, much moved. "And, if my letter had come to them, they might have saved me—and Shushan," his heart added.
Thomassian came over close to him, and stretched out his hand. "Can you forgive me?" he asked.
Jack was silent for just a moment. Then he said slowly, "'As we forgive them that trespass against us.' Yes, Baron Thomassian, I do forgive you, in His name whom we hope so soon to see." "But, oh! how I wish you had spoken!" he could not help thinking, tho' he crushed back the words in time. "Don't think it would have made a difference," he said. "I do forgive you, with all my heart."
"It might have changed everything, or it might not," Thomassian said mournfully. "I have no power now to undo that wrong, or any of the others I have done. Friends, while I sat in silence yonder, my face turned from you all, the sins of my whole life came upon me. They swept over my head like black waters, they seemed to choke my very life out. The thought of death was terrible. I could not die, and go into God's presence thus. And yet, to give up my faith would only be to add another sin, and one for which there is no pardon."
"Oh, no!" Jack threw in. "That is too hard a saying."