“I demand it.”
“Very well,” he replied deliberately. “The immediate reason is a secret of great importance, I must ask you to guard it sacredly.”
“I’ve kept a dark one in my soul. You have had no cause to complain.”
“The morning papers are full of wild speculation as to the millionaire who gave that immense sum to build the Temple. Miss Ransom gave the money.”
“Impossible!” she gasped.
“So I thought at first. A lawyer came in the afternoon and told me of the gift without a hint of its author. In answer to a request on a card asking that I inform her of the results of my appeal, I called at her house—-”
“Before you called at your own or informed your wife,” she interrupted with bitterness.
“Yes; you have ceased to care about rny work. But there was another and more urgent reason why I called,”
“Doubtless!” she cried impatiently.
“When the import of this gift fully dawned on me, the fulfilment of my grandest hopes in the very moment of defeat (for the popular subscription was a failure), I was overwhelmed with gratitude to God. I fell on my knees and thanked Him. And then, Ruth—”