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Then said in a yet lower tone of voice, almost in a whisper, but with perfect naturalness, "And far, far above all, when we were yet without strength, ungodly sinners, who was it signalized His love towards us by dying for us on the cross?" More passed between the two friends that night. But Cosin could elicit no definite promise from the other. He only said, with great emotion, as they parted,
He seemed to have run all the way. "You are the very man I want," said Cosin. "Do let me see him," cried the other, all out of breath. "You shall directly, only you must restrain your feelings, and on no account disturb him. He is so ill, it would kill him outright if you did."
Not a remark did he make: not a question did he ask. Then, when the tale was told, and Tournier was waiting for some reply, Cosin started from his chair, and began to pace up and down the room in extreme agitation. At length he stopped in front of the other, and said, sternly but sorrowfully, "Then, after all, you have given up God." "I hope not."
I am afraid I have made use of religious jargon, like many others." "My dear fellow," replied Cosin, "God is good to all; but we have no right to claim any share in His goodness except through Christ. If we left that out it would be jargon indeed." Victor Malin and Marc Poivre hated each other with perfect hatred. But there was this peculiarity in their mutual animosity: it was intermittent.
A message was brought to Cosin that required him to quit the room, and Alice and Tournier were left alone. "Do you know, Miss Cosin, what it was that forced me at last to come and see your brother?" "Indeed, I do not," she replied, a little surprised at the earnestness with which he so abruptly asked the question. "It was misery.
Then answered Ceres, Verely Psyches, I am greatly moved by thy prayers and teares, and desire with all my heart to aide thee, but if I should suffer thee to be hidden here, I should increase the displeasure of my Cosin, with whom I have made a treatie of peace, and an ancient promise of amity: wherefore I advise thee to depart hence and take it not in evil part in that I will not suffer thee to abide and remaine here within my temple.
"And yet, silly fellow that I am," said Cosin, "I now remember how her face always lighted up when she heard about you, or we talked of your coming. What a blind bat I have been! Oh, how I hope she does like you. I am sure she must. But you must find it out, and if she has any scruples left, tell her to come to me and I will satisfy her." And Tournier, nothing loth, did find it out next day.
He quitted the hospitable roof of his friend with much regret, but with a heart full of gratitude, and went back to his discomforts as a man returning to his duty, not what he liked, but his duty, and what he meant to make the best of. Alice Cosin was much struck with the alteration in him, so much so indeed that she did not quite like it.
They spent a pleasant afternoon together, Cosin doing all he could to divert and amuse his friend, and his sister helping him: for they were cheerful souls, though Tournier thought he saw at times a vein of sadness in his host, amid all his cheerfulness, which, they say, and say truly, always adds piquancy to mirth.
To understand Tournier's enthusiasm, we must know something of how a deeply sensitive nature is drawn toward the one who has saved his soul from death. "Come, my friends," said Cosin, "let us be merry while we can, which to my thinking is always, if we cast our future upon God. There is no happiness unalloyed with sorrow in this world. We must wait for that.
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