"Thekla, he thinks me unchanged during all those years; me, the matron
of the novices! But oh, how he is changed! What a life-time of suffering
on his face! How they must have made him suffer!"
"God gives it to you as your life-work to restore and help him," I said.
"O Eva, it must be the best woman's lot in the world to bind up for the
dearest on earth the wounds which men have inflicted. It must be joy
unutterable to receive back from God's own hands a love you have both so
dearly proved you were ready to sacrifice for him."
"Your mother thinks so too," she said. "She said last night the vows
which would bind us together would be holier than any ever uttered by
saint or hermit."
"Did our mother say that?" I asked.
"Yes," replied Eva. "And she said she was sure Dr. Luther would think so
also."