"God knows I am not; but is a future denied to man because of a blackened past? Heaven knows I would give all the years to come if I could cleanse my soul of sin and stand before you and my God for one brief hour a pure man."
A wild light gleamed in her eyes. She bent forward away from him, not daring to look at him. Her voice was scarcely more than a whisper, and yet he heard the words:
"You have sinned so deeply, then?"
He paused, lifting the heavy hair from his white brow, as if its weight oppressed him.
"Yes," he answered.
"How?" she panted.
Another pause, then slowly:
"I can not tell you now, but some day I will. Some day when—"
"When what?" she whispered, breathlessly.
He leaned forward and whispered in her ear: