"I believe you," said the girl, beginning to sob.
With a touching movement of absolute confidence she laid her faded face against his shoulder.
"That is better, is it not?" said Wyndham.
"Yes, thank you, sir. I'm desperate sleepy, and I shan't slip off the bench now. I was afraid to go to sleep before, for if I slipped off somebody else would get my seat, and I know I'd be dead if I lay on the pavement till morning."
"Well, go to sleep, now. I shan't let you slip off."
"I am sorry if my cough disturbs you. I cannot help giving way to it now and then."
"Oh, sir, it is not that; you seem like a good angel to me. I even love the sound of your cough, for it is kind. But have you not a home, sir?"
"I certainly have a shelter for the night. Not a home in the true sense of the word."
"Ought you not to go to your shelter, sir?"
"No, I shall stay here with you until you have had a good sleep. Now shut your eyes."
The girl tried to obey. For about ten minutes she sat quiet, and Wyndham held her close, trying to impart some of the warmth from his own body to her frozen frame. Suddenly the girl raised her eyes, looked him in the face, and smiled.
"You make a great mistake. On the contrary I have sinned more deeply than most."
"I don't want you to preach to me, sir; but I know from your face however you have sinned you have been forgiven."
"You make another mistake; my sin is unabsolved."
The girl's astonishment showed itself in her tone.
"Don't talk about me," continued Wyndham. "It is a curious fact that I love God, although it is impossible for Him to forgive me until I do something which I find impossible to do. I go unforgiven through life, still I love God. I delight in His justice, I glory in the love He has even for me, and still more for those who like you can repent and come to Him, and be really forgiven."
He paused, he saw that he was talking over the girl's head. Presently he resumed in a very gentle pleading voice:--
"I don't want to hear your story, but----"
The girl interrupted him with a sort of cry.
"It is the usual story, sir. There is nothing to conceal. Once I was innocent, now I am what men and women call _lost_. Lost and fallen. That's what they say of girls like me."
"God can say something quite different to you. He can say found and restored. Listen. No one loves you like God. Loving He forgives. All things are possible to love."