"No, you can't help even that. You must come to me if you love—Daniel. I'm his destiny. I'm the maker of his future. His light shall shine, and he shall be a happy man, and do good and great work in the world long after I'm dead and gone. I'm only the poor means, yet vital. A stone counts for less than the tool it sharpens; but the steel couldn't do its work without the stone. You—you are your husband's light, and his life, and his salvation. You shall give him his heart's desire if——"
He broke off, was silent a moment, then asked a question.
"What would Bathsheba have said if David had put it so?"
"Depends on the sort she was. Might was right for her, poor woman. She had no choice."
"She'd have spoken according to the reality of her love for Uriah," he said positively. "She'd have said, 'I am in the hands of my God, and if good things may come to my husband through me, 'tis my joy and glory as a loving wife to take them to him.' Can God do wrong?"
He stopped and looked at her.
Her bosom panted and she grew weeping-ripe.
"Never—never, wrong or right. 'Tis cruel to put it so. He'd rather cut my throat with his own hand. He'd——"
"But think—so much for so little. I want so little, and yet not little, for I ask what's worth more than all the money I've got in the world. Kiss me—once, Sarah Jane—only once—and I'll do more for your husband than his highest dreams or hopes. For love of him kiss me—not for love of me. Would I ask you to do an evil thing? Is it evil to put new life into a very sorrowful man and purify every drop of blood in an unhappy heart? Is it evil to make the sick whole again at a touch? Didn't Daniel's Lord and Master do as much a thousand times——?"
She stared and turned pale, save for her lips. Twin tears glittered in her eyes. He put his arm round her swiftly and kissed her. For the briefest moment he held her, then he leapt to his feet and drew a great breath.