was best known to herself. In his mind there was
evidently a doubt whether it was wanton cruelty, or a desire for
information concerning her _protege_. He began to wonder, in view of
the persistence of her interest in Emmet, whether she had not divined
the cause of his late arrival from the first.

"When I first came in," he continued, "and Littleford thrust me into a
chair beside you, I caught the scent of these lilies before I knew they
were in your hands. It was something like an experience that befell
one of my ancestors as he approached America after a two months' voyage
in a sailing vessel. They were nearing Virginia one night in May, and
a land breeze blew the fragrance of flowers to them across the water
before they saw the shore. _On desperate seas long wont to roam_--You
know the verse?"

She rose hurriedly to her feet, distressed, perhaps repentant. "You
must not," she protested in a low voice. "You must not."

"There is some reason why I must not?" he questioned, confronting her
with paling face. She nodded a confirmation of his fear. "Then I must
ask just one question more," he persisted miserably. "Suppose the
reason did not exist--I don't ask you to tell me now what it is--but
suppose there were no reason. Would you forbid me to love you then?"

For a moment she did not reply, and he watched her face as one who
would read an enigmatical page from the book of fate. The question
demanded an answer, a definite reply, which she was not prepared to
give. He saw dawning in her eyes a recognition of him in a new light;
it was as if she now contemplated the possibility she had rejected. In
this attitude of mind, as in nothing else, the bishop's cold and
calculating nature disclosed itself in the daughter, and Leigh divined
that she did not wish to love him, though she allowed herself to desire
the tribute of his love. It was this desire that enabled her to enjoy
the situation, to convey to him a denial that was not absolute. She
might withdraw herself,--she had said that she must,--yet something
might remain, something more than friendship, less than the claims of
an acknowledged love.

"If the reason did not exist," she repeated slowly, "then--perhaps."

He heard the words with a gesture of acquiescence, and followed her in
silence down the aisle in the direction of the house, wondering why he
did not stop her before it was too late and ask her whether he had
heard aright, why he had not k