Page:Fletcher--Where Highways Cross.djvu/74

 "Yes, of course I do, Elisabeth," he answered. "All of it, every word."

"You are sure that all will be made plain in the end, some day, sooner or later?"

"Yes, I am sure."

Elisabeth shook her head.

"Don't you believe it?" he asked presently.

"No!" she said. "No, sir, I wish I could. I wish I could believe that those who work wickedness will be punished for it, as you say they will."

"They will," he answered. "It's sure and certain. It's a consequence—you can't have sin without punishment nor good without reward. Don't doubt it. But"—here he paused and remembered her changed expression of the afternoon—"we must forgive those who do wickedness against us."

The hard expression came into Elisabeth's face again. She shook her head decidedly.

"Good people may do that, sir," she said. "But if you had been tried—if you had seen