"Why? Because I believe her when she talks that way—when she gives me to understand that she loves me?"
"No; but because you didn't believe all along that she loved you."
"How could I when she refused to marry me and married another man?"
"That marriage is explained. You've seen the letter she wrote the night before she went away, haven't you?"
"Yes, her mother showed it to me."
"I didn't read it," said Gid, "but the Major gave me the points, and I know that she married that fellow believing that she was saving his soul."
"Yes, I read that," said Jim, "but I didn't know whether she meant it or not. I reckon I was afraid to believe it."
"Well, I know it to be a fact—know it because I know her nature. She's just crank enough——"
"Don't say that," Jim protested, unclasping his hands from his knee and straightening up. "Don't call her a crank when she's an angel."
"That's all right, my dear boy, but heaven is full of the right sort of cranks. Who serves God deeper than the religious crank, and if he's not to be rewarded, who is? By crank I don't mean a weak-minded person; I come nearer meaning a genius."