Then like a child asked simply, "Wilt thou come?...

XVIII

"Oh, I have suffered, Gerald! Oh, my God!

What shame! What torture! Once my soul was clean—

Stained and defiled behold it!—I have trod

Sad ways of hell and horror. I have seen

And lived all depths of lust. Yet, oh, my God!

Blameless I hold myself of what hath been,

Though through it all, yea,—this thou too must know,—

I loved him, my betrayer and thy foe!"