"I believe it, but I don't feel it. It doesn't give me peace. What can wash away my sins, which are so great?"
"'If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins,'" Beryl once more quoted.
"Ah, ah," and Martin slightly raised his head. "There is comfort in those words. 'If any man sin,' and 'Jesus' blood cleanseth us from all sin,' Beryl," and he now looked up full into her face. "You know how great are my sins, do you really think that they can ever be forgiven?"
Beryl at once leaned forward and caught his right hand in hers. "Martin," she cried, "I forgave you long ago, and will not He, whose love and mercy are so great, be more ready to forgive?"
Into Martin's eyes came an expression of surprise, mingled with hope.
"Do you mean it, Beryl?" he asked, in a voice scarcely above a whisper. "That you forgive me? I can't believe it!"
"Yes, yes; it's true. I forgave you long ago. Even when every one denounced you I still believed in you."
"Is it possible? Is it possible?" and Martin gazed absently out of the window. "What reason had you to forgive me?"
"Perhaps there was none," Beryl gently replied. "When a woman loves she doesn't seek for a reason; she never thinks of it. True love is of the heart, and not of the head."
"And I believed that you had forgotten!" Martin murmured.