The power that
had put the shadow of pain over the life of Grace Conner, waited for
Hope and Dan, until the minister himself should furnish the motive that
should call it into action. Dan felt it--felt his enemy stirring quietly
in the dark, watching, waiting. And, as the weeks passed, it came to be
noticed that there was often in the man's eyes, and in his voice, a great
sadness--the sadness of one who toils at a hopeless task; of one who
suffers for crimes of which he is innocent; of one who fights for a
well-loved cause with the certainty of defeat.
Because of the very fine sense of Dan's nature the situation caused him
the keenest suffering. It was all so different from the life to which he
had looked forward with such feelings of joy; it was all so unjust. Many
were the evenings that winter when the minister flew to Dr. Harry and his
ministry of music. And in those hours the friendship between the two men
grew into something fine and lasting, a friendship that was to endure
always. Many times, too, Dan fled across the country to the farm of John
Gardner, there to spend the day in the hardest toil, finding in the
ministry of labor, something that met his need. But more than these was
the friendship of Hope Farwell and the influence of her life and
ministry.
It was inevitable that the very attitude of the community should force
these two friends into closer companionship and sympathy. The people,
in judging them so harshly for the course each had chosen--because to
them it was right and the only course possible to their religious
ideals--drove them to a fuller dependence upon each other.
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