In time it might have changed him to a bitter, suspicious, disappointed cynic, had there not also come to him, with strong conviction, one truth -- a truth preached on the shores of Galilee eighteen hundred years ago -- the only truth that can save the wronged heart from breaking-- that he who gives away only a cup of cold water shall in no wise lose his reward.

Still, the reward is not temporal, and is rarely rewarded in kind.

He--and He alone--to whom the debt is due, repays it; not in our, but in his own way.

One only consolation remains to the sufferers from ingratitude, but that one is all-sufficing: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these little ones, ye have done it unto Me." All autumn, winter, and during another spring and summer, Helen's letters--most fond, regular, and (to her father) satisfactory-- contained incessant and eager hopes of return, which were never fulfilled.

And gradually she ceased to give any reason for their non-fulfillment, simply saying, with a sad brevity of silence, which one, at least, of her friends knew how to comprehend and appreciate, that her coming home at present was "impossible." "It's very true," said the good minister, disappointed as he was: "a man must cleave to his wife, and a woman to her husband.