o feel, so far as our church
is concerned, that she is an Ishmaelite; we don't want to have the
spectacle of her having to go around, outside, to find a clergyman--that
would be too dreadful! I know how strict, how unflinching you are, and I
admire you for it. But this is a special case."

She paused, breathing deeply, and Hodder gazed at her with pity. What he
felt was more than pity; he was experiencing, indeed, but with a deeper
emotion, something of that same confusion of values into which Eleanor
Goodrich's visit had thrown him. At the same time it had not escaped his
logical mind that Mrs. Constable had made her final plea on the score of
respectability.

"It gives me great pain to have to refuse you," he said gently.

"Oh, don't," she said sharply, "don't say that! I can't have made the
case clear. You are too big, too comprehending, Mr. Hodder, to have a
hard-and-fast rule. There must be times--extenuating circumstances--and
I believe the canons make it optional for a clergyman to marry the
innocent person."

"Yes, it is optional, but I do, not believe it should be. The question
is left to the clergyman's' conscience. According to my view, Mrs.
Constable, the Church, as the agent of God, effects an indissoluble
bond. And much as I should like to do anything in my power for you and
Mr. Constable, you have asked the impossible,--believing as I do, there
can be no special case, no extenuating circumstance. And it is my duty
to tell you it is because people to-day are losing their beliefs that we
have this lenient attitude toward the sacred things. If they still held
the conviction that marriage is of God, they would labour to make it a
success, instead of flying apart at the first sign of what they choose
to call incompatibility."

"But surely," she said, "we ought not to be punished for our mistakes! I
cannot believe that Christ himself intended that his religion should be
so inelastic, so hard and fast, so cruel as you imply. Surely there
is enough unhappiness without making more. You speak of
incompatibility--but is it in all cases such an insignificant matter?
We are beginning to realize in these days something of the effects of
character on character,--deteriorating effects, in many instances. With
certain persons we are lifted up, inspired to face the battle of life
and overcome its difficulties. I have known fine men and women whose
lives have been stultified or ruined because they were badly mated.
An