It stood there before her like a blazing cross of flame; she must hold those two men apart, even though they both trampled her heart beneath their feet.

This was her destiny, the payment she must return the world for having once made a mistake.

One out of the multitude, she felt strong enough in the crisis to choose deliberately the straight and narrow path leading through Gethsemane.
And this very choosing gave back her womanhood, cleared her dazed brain for action, and sent the red blood throbbing through her veins.

Her immediate surroundings began to take definite form.

To the left the great, deserted stage extended, wrapped in total darkness, silent, forsaken, the heavy drop-curtain lowered to the floor.