in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” It is the only safeguard for us poor human beings. “Integer vitæ,” says a Roman poet, who is strange company for St. Paul—
The man of upright life, from frailties free,
Stands not in need of Moorish spear or bow.
Well, having felt this so strongly, you will see what a terrible remorse it bred in me when I, my very self, fell.’
He then told her of that time of his life to which allusion has been made when, tossed about by doubts and difficulties like a cork on the waves, he went to London and plunged into eight-and-forty hours’ dissipation with a stranger.
‘Happily I awoke almost immediately to a sense of my folly,’ he continued. ‘I would have no more to say to her, and I came home. I have never repeated the offence. But I felt I should like to treat you with perfect frankness and honour, and I could not do so without telling this. Do you forgive me?’
She pressed his hand tightly for an answer.
‘Then we will dismiss it at once and for ever
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