When the Shepherd had left her, the woman who was to go to the High Places without leaving her own home, went upstairs to her room, bathed herself, and put on one of her prettiest dresses. Then she went to the apartment of old Mrs. Sullen, tapped on the door, and went inside. The old lady glared at her in a surly manner and said not a word.

“Mother,” said Forgiveness gently, “I have come to tell you how sorry I am that I have been such a disagreeable and unloving daughter to you and to ask your forgiveness. I hope to be very different in the future.”

“Fine words, fine words!” snapped the old lady. “I am glad to see that at last you seem to have come to your senses and to be conscious of your abominable behavior. But it will take more than words, Umbrage, I can assure you, to convince me of your sincerity. I shall see how you behave in the days to come and whether you are really willing to be a dutiful and obedient and submissive wife to my dear son. Deeds and not fine words are the sign of real penitence.”

“Yes, Mother,” said Forgiveness gently, and kissed the sullen old woman for the first time in many a long month. Sooner or later, the Shepherd had said, love—the love he had planted in her heart—would work some change in Mrs. Sullen and in her husband also. She would wait confidently with hope and peace for the change which was to come.

A few hours later, when Resentment returned to the house and went straight to his own room, avoiding his wife as his custom now was, he heard a light tap on the door and turning, was astonished to see Forgiveness standing before him. She came up to him quietly and said in a low, trembling voice, “I have come to tell you how much I need your forgiveness, for I have been such a failure as a wife and have been so selfish and demanding and unloving.”

He looked at her for a moment in silence, noted the gentle, humble, appealing look on her face, and said in a queer voice, “You have been talking with the Shepherd, Umbrage?”

She trembled all over, but answered in a low tone, “Yes.”