Colonel Markin held the pearls up in the moonlight.
"They must have cost something to buy," he said.
Laura was silent.
"And so they're a trouble to you. Have you taken them to the Lord in
prayer?"
"Oh, many times."
"Couldn't seem to hear any answer?"
"The only answer I could hear was, 'So long as you have them I will not
speak with you.'"
"That seems pretty plain and clear. And yet," said the Colonel, fondling
the turquoises, "nobody can say there's any harm in such things,
especially if you don't, wear them."
"Colonel, they are my great temptation. I don't know that I wouldn't
wear them. And when I wear them I can think of nothing sacred, nothing
holy. When they were given to me I used--I used to get up in the night
to look at them."
"Shall I lay it before the Almighty? That bracelet's got a remarkably
good clasp."
"Oh no--no! I must part with them. To-night I can do it, to-night----"
"There's nobody on this ship that will give you any price for them."
"I would not think of selling them. It would be sending them from my
hands to do harm to some other poor creature, weaker than I!"
"You can't return them to-night."
"I wouldn't return them.
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