22 How the Church Has Changed the World Unnamed.” His own servants and henchmen tremble when he comes before them. And the girl… if only she had tried the ways of women! A leer, a pout, something to scorn, something impure; but she knelt before him, and she promised to pray for him. “You have had a mother, my lord!” she cried. “Think of my mother. What have I done to you, my lord? Why will you not let me go home to my mother?” Her innocence disarmed him. Her innocence did more than that. He takes a pistol out of its case and lays it before him on the desk. It is loaded. He cocks it, uncocks it, and cocks it again. A wasted life, a life of wickedness, and from that wickedness no joy, but only darkness visible. And if he dies, no one will pity him. So it goes through the night, when in the early dawn he hears sounds from far below. Bells? The neighing of horses? The chatter of happy people? What is that life from which he has shut himself out? The Unnamed descends. Reader, do you want to know what happens? Do youwant to be there when this lifelong criminal, this terrible man feared by everyone and weighted down by sin upon sin, descends the mountain? Why are the bells ringing? Who has come to town? You must read The Betrothed.
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