Then said Guest the One-eyed quietly, “You are troubled at heart by the thought that the sins of the fathers are to be visited upon the children. Do not let that weigh too heavily upon you now. There are those who suffer so deeply for their own sins that they atone for them in life, and more. You are one of these. I am not speaking empty words to you for comfort’s sake, but the truth. You can trust me. God has granted me the power to give my fellow-men in need the knowledge of remission of their sins, as far as may be in knowledge of the truth. I have sinned, and my debt is not yet paid—but my sin was greater than yours or that of any other I have met. But the Lord God is merciful, and I believe that He will grant me peace at last. At last, in death. And when that comes, I can say with truth that my life, by God’s grace, has been a happy one.”
The woman looked at him, with the same dull hopelessness in her eyes.
“How can you know that I have sufficiently atoned for my sin—you, who have known me only since yesterday, and heard no more than I have told you?”
Guest the One-eyed smiled, and a strange look of far-seeing wisdom lit up his heavy face.
“I believe that the Lord has sent me to you for your comfort in need—that the Lord has given me, and to no other, a sign to make you sure. I am no prophet, and I do not profess to tell what will or will not come. But—shall I tell you a secret? Promise me, first, that you will not act in any way to bring about that which shall come in God’s good time.”
The woman grasped his hand and nodded. Her eyes were fixed intently on his face, as if striving to read his words ere they were spoken.
“Your daughter will be the happiest woman in this land. She is loved by the purest soul I have ever looked into through human eyes.” He turned away for a moment, and murmured, as if to himself: “I thank Thee, Lord, for Thy great mercy.” Then, addressing the widow again, he went on: “And she, on her part, returns his love with all her innocent heart.”
The woman’s face darkened.
“Impossible,” she said. “There is no young man she knows here at all. I do not believe she has ever spoken to one.”
“Remember your promise, and trust me now. The girl is in her heart—and in the book of Fate—betrothed and wedded to the one I speak of. Give time, and see.”