The little wife made a brave fight. For a week there was no sign of a breakdown save an unnatural brightness of the eyes that told the story of struggle within. He gave himself to the effort to help her win. He spent but an hour at the Capitol, left a Speaker pro tem in the chair, hurried to his office, gave his orders and by eleven o\'clock he was at home, talking, laughing, and planning a day\'s work that would interest her and bring back the flush to her pale cheeks.

She had responded to his increasing tenderness and devotion with pathetic eagerness. At the beginning of the second week Doctor Williams gave him hope:

"It looks to me, my boy," he said thoughtfully, "that I\'m seeing a miracle. I think she\'s not only going to survive the shock, but, what\'s more remarkable, she\'s going to recover her health again. The mind\'s the source of health and power. We give medicines, of course, but the thought that heals the soul will reach the body. Bah!—the body is the soul anyhow, for all our fine-spun theories, and the mind is only one of the ways through which we reach it——"

"You really think she may be well again?" Norton asked with boyish eagerness.

"Yes, if you can reconcile her mind to this thing, she\'ll not only live, she will be born again into a more[Pg 140] vigorous life. Why not? The preachers have often called me a godless rationalist. But I go them one better when they preach the miracle of a second, or spiritual birth. I believe in the possibility of many births for the human soul and the readjustment of these bodies of ours to the new spirits thus born. If you can tide her over the next three weeks without a breakdown, she will get well."

The husband\'s eyes flashed:

"If it depends on her mental attitude, I\'ll make her live and grow strong. I\'ll give her my body and soul."

"There are just two dangers——"

"What?"

"The first mental—a sudden collapse of the will with which she\'s making this fight under a reaction to the memories of our system of educated ignorance, which we call girlish innocence. This may come at a moment when ............