ward the open
door. At the foot of that upper flight, she heard him pause. She
could not see him till he passed; and he might pass without turning.
Unless he turned, she would be out of his sight; for the door swung
inward from the far corner. No matter.

He went by with a slow step. He could not help seeing the open door.
But he did not stop or turn, until he reached the stairhead of the
second flight; then he had to face this way again. And as he passed
around the railing, he looked up; for Bel was standing where she had
stood last night.

She had put herself in his way; but she had not done it lightly,
with any half intent, to give _him_ new opportunity for words. There
was a pure, gentle quiet in her face; she had something herself to
say. He saw it, and went back.

He colored, as he gave her his hand. Her face was pale.

"Come in a moment, Mr. Hewland," said the simple, girlish, voice.

He followed her in.

"You asked me questions last night, and I did not know how to answer
them. I want to ask you one question, now."

She had brought him to the side of the round table, upon whose red
cloth the large Bible lay. It was open at the place where she had
read it.

She put her finger on the page, and made him look. She drew the
finger slowly down from line to line, as if she were pointing for a
little child to read; and his eye followed it.

"For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall
cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh.

"Wherefore, they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore
God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."

"Is that the way you will make a home and give it to me,--before
them all?" she said.

He forgot the sophistries he might have used; he forgot to say that
it _was_ to leave father and mother and join himself to her, that he
had purposed; he forgot to tell her again that he would be true to
her all his life, and that nothing should put them asunder. He did
not take up those words, as men have done, and say that God had
joined their hearts together and made them in his sight one. The
angels were beside him, in his turn, as he read. Those sentences of
the Christ, shining up at him from the page, were like the look
turned back upon Peter, showing him his sin.

"One flesh:" to be seen and known as one. To have one body of
living; to be outwardly joined before the face of men. None to set
them asunder, or hold them separate by thought, or