“I can not go on. I can not!
“Was not Cain’s punishment greater than he could bear?
“When they came to me as I lay in my despair across the threshold of his door, and told me that the light of those beautiful eyes was quenched forever; that I should never meet that loving glance again, that he was blind—blind—and that it was my hand that had done it; then it was that in my agony I breathed the vow that I would remove their curse from them, that I would wander forth, Cain-like, into the great world, until my punishment was in some degree commensurate with my sin. Fern, I have never faltered in my purpose. I have never repented of my resolve, though their love has sought to recall me, and I know that in their hearts they have forgiven me. I have worked, and wept, and prayed, and my expiation has not been in vain.
“In the Crystal you know, you will hardly find a trace of the high-spirited girl that Raby loved, nay, that he loves still. Ah, I know it all now; how he seeks for his darling, and makes it his life purpose to find her, and bring her back to peace. I know how even in his intolerable anguish he prayed them to have mercy upon me, and to spare me the awful truth. I have seen his face, that changed blind face of his. I have ministered to him with these hands, I have heard his dear voice, and yet I have not betrayed myself.”
“Crystal,” sobbed Fern, and indeed she could scarcely speak for her tears, she was so moved by this pitiful story, “if I were you I would go back to-morrow; how can you, how can you leave him, when he needs you so?”
“I go back to him?” repeated the other girl, mournfully. “I who have blighted his life and darkened his days; who have made his existence a long night? I who have robbed him of the glory of his priesthood, and made him what he is, a wreck of his former self?”
“Yes,” was the steady answer. “I would go back to him and be his eyes, though his goodness humbled me in the dust. Ah, Crystal, are you worse than she out of whom the Saviour cast seven devils, and who loved much because much had been forgiven her.”
“Hush, hush! you do not know, Fern!”
“My darling, I do know,” persisted Fern, gently, “and I tell you that it is your duty to go back to Raby, who loves you so. Nay,” she continued, as a deep blush rose to Crystal’s olive cheek, “he never cared for this Mona—your own words have proved that. Go back to him, and be the light of his eyes, and take his darkness from him, for I see plainly that he will never leave off seeking you, and you only.”