the man that had wronged him, and a defiant reassertion of himself
after his humiliating confession. He suspected also, what indeed was
the truth, that the discovery of his own feeling for the bishop's
daughter had opened Emmet's eyes anew to her value, and had cleared
them of the mists of passion for the unfortunate Lena Harpster. From
now on the mayor would do his best to win his wife back. He had the
bearing of one who had recovered his poise and meant to yield no inch
of ground.

Leigh, absorbed in the impression he had received, was unconscious of
the one he had given, of his somewhat repellent expression when he saw
the mayor's square figure bearing down upon him. Yet his emotion was
less personal and intense than the other's in proportion as he was less
primitive by nature and training. He distinguished between Emmet the
mayor and Emmet the lover; for he was familiar with the phenomenon of
official probity combined with a lack of that quality in some personal
relationship. Had Emmet's quandary been presented to him abstractly,
he would have been quite tolerant in his judgement, with the
understanding of a man of the world; but, in spite of resentment and
chagrin, he still continued to love Felicity Wycliffe, and this fact
made him scornful of the man who had trampled her gift under foot. But
would Felicity continue to give?

Leigh believed that she had awakened from her delusion; but what
direction would her pride now take? Would she continue in the course
she had chosen in sheer perversity, in sheer fidelity to herself?
There was also the attraction of extreme opposites to be reckoned with,
the fascination which a man of simple psychology, of strength and
wholesome good looks, might possess for a woman of great subtlety and
cultivation. Yet what could he do to prevent it? With what grace
could he attempt to open her eyes to her husband's ulterior motives in
seeking a reconciliation, now that she knew of his own love for her?
Could he advise her to get a divorce on some technical ground, that she
might marry the man who had opened her eyes to the truth? And how
could he assume that to her he was an element in the situation?

After his first emotion in learning that she had never lived with her
husband, and his consequent conviction that she regarded the marriage
as a mistake, the ceremony itself loomed up as a grim fact, one not to
be brushed aside by ingenious arguments. Behind it, as a prop to i