The New Magdalen

The answer came faintly and mournfully. "She has sunk too low for that!"

He interrupted her with a gesture of impatience.

"What has she done?" he asked.

"She has deceived--basely deceived--innocent people who trusted her. She

has wronged--cruelly wronged--another woman."

For the first time Julian seated himself at her side. The interest that

was now roused in him was an interest above reproach. He could speak to

Mercy without restraint; he could look at Mercy with a pure heart.

"You judge her very harshly," he said. "Do _you_ know how she may have

been tried and tempted?"

There was no answer.

"Tell me," he went on, "is the person whom she has injured still

living?"

"Yes."

"If the person is still living, she may atone for the wrong. The time

may come when this sinner, too, may win our pardon and deserve our

respect."

"Could _you_ respect her?" Mercy asked, sadly. "Can such a mind as yours

understand what she has gone through?"

A smile, kind and momentary, brightened his attentive face.

"You forget my melancholy experience," he answered. "Young as I am, I

have seen more than most men of women who have sinned and suffered. Even

after the little that you have told me, I think I can put myself in

her place. I can well understand, for instance, that she may have been

tempted beyond human resistance. Am I right?"

"You are right."

"She may have had nobody near at the time to advise her, to warn her, to

save her. Is that true?"

"It is true."

"Tempted and friendless, self-abandoned to the evil impulse of the

moment, this woman may have committed herself headlong to the act which

she now vainly repents. She may long to make atonement, and may not

know how to begin. All her energies may be crushed under the despair and

horror of herself, out of which the truest repentance grows. Is such

a woman as this all wicked, all vile? I deny it! She may have a noble

nature; and she may show it nobly yet. Give her the opportunity she

needs, and our poor fallen fellow-creature may take her place again

among the best of us--honored, blameless, happy, once more!"

Mercy's eyes, resting eagerly on him while he was speaking, dropped

again despondingly when he had done.

"There is no such future as that," she answered, "for the woman whom I

am thinking of. She has lost her opportunity. She has done with hope."

Julian gravely considered with himself for a moment.

"Let us understand each other," he said. "She has committed an act of

deception to the injury of another woman. Was that what you told me?"

"Yes."

"And she has gained something to her own advantage by the act."

"Yes."

"Is she threatened with discovery?"