"But, oh, I feel as if I must hold you,—hold you!—you are leaving me!"
"Come on, Elsie!" exclaimed Jacqueline, as though she almost hoped this of her dear companion.
"But where?" asked Elsie, not so tenderly.
"Where God leads. I cannot tell."
"I do not understand."
"You would not think the Truth worth buying at the price of your life?"
"My life?"
"Or such a price as he pays who—has been branded to-day?"
"It was not the truth to your mother,—or to mine. It was not the truth to any one we ever knew, till we came here to Meaux."
"It is true to my heart, Elsie. It is true to my conscience. I know that
I can live for it. And it may be"—