n crying. "She ought to leave
you until some certainty shall be arrived at."

"Nonsense! No!" said Lionel. "I beg you--I _beg_ you, Miss West, not
to say anything more that can distress or disturb her. If
the--the--explosion comes, of course it must come; and we must all meet
it as we best may, and see then what is best to be done."

"But it is not right that she should remain with you in this
uncertainty," urged Deborah, who could be obstinate when she thought she
had cause. "The world will not deem it to be right. You should remember
this."

"I do not act to please the world. I am responsible to God and my
conscience."

"Responsible to--Good gracious, Mr. Verner!" returned Deborah, every
line in her face expressing astonishment. "You call keeping her with you
acting as a responsible man ought! If Sibylla's husband is living, you
must put her away from your side."

"When the time shall come. Until then, my duty--as I judge it--is to
keep her by my side; to shelter her from harm and annoyance, petty as
well as great."

"You deem _that_ your duty!"

"I do," he firmly answered. "My duty to her and to God."

Deborah shook her head and her hands. "It ought not to be let go on,"
she said, moving nearer to the study door. "I shall urge the leaving you
upon her."

Lionel calmly laid his hand upon the lock. "Pardon me, Miss West. I
cannot allow my wife to be subjected to it."

"But if she is not your wife?"

A streak of red came into his pale face. "It has yet to be proved that
she is not. Until that time shall come, Miss West, she _is_ my wife, and
I shall protect her as such."

"You will not let me see her?" asked Deborah, for his hand was not
lifted from the handle.

"No. Not if your object be the motives you avow. Sleep a night upon it,
Miss West, and see if you do not change your mode of thinking and come
over to mine. Return here in the morning with words of love and comfort
for her, and none will welcome you more sincerely than I."

"Answer me one thing, Mr. Verner. Do you believe in your heart that
Frederick Massingbird is alive and has returned?"

"Unfortunately I have no resource but to believe it," he replied.

"Then, to your way of thinking I can never come," returned Deborah in
some agitation. "It is just sin, Mr. Verner, in the sight of Heaven."

"I think not," he quietly answered. "I am content to let Heaven judge
me, and the motives that actuate me; a judgment more merciful than
man's."