as if in words: She has deceived you in one thing; why not in
another?

"Can I see my lawyer here?" he asked, suddenly.

"My dear Romayne, you can see any one whom you like to invite."

"I shall not trouble you by staying very long, Father Benwell."

"Do nothing in a hurry, my son. Pray do nothing in a hurry!"

Romayne paid no attention to this entreaty. Shrinking from the momentous
decision that awaited him, his mind instinctively took refuge in
the prospect of change of scene. "I shall leave England," he said,
impatiently.

"Not alone!" Father Benwell remonstrated.

"Who will be my companion?"

"I will," the priest answered.

Romayne's weary eyes brightened faintly. In his desolate position,
Father Benwell was the one friend on whom he could rely. Penrose was far
away; the Lorings had helped to keep him deceived; Major Hynd had openly
pitied and despised him as a victim to priestcraft.

"Can you go with me at any time?" he asked. "Have you no duties that
keep you in England?"

"My duties, Romayne, are already confided to other hands."

"Then you have foreseen this?"

"I have thought it possible. Your journey may be long, or it may be
short--you shall not go away alone."

"I can think of nothing yet; my mind is a blank," Romayne confessed
sadly. "I don't know where I shall go."

"I know where you ought to go--and where you _will_ go," said Father
Benwell, emphatically.

"Where?"

"To Rome."

Romayne understood the true meaning of that brief reply. A vague sense
of dismay began to rise in his mind. While he was still tortured by
doubt, it seemed as if Father Benwell had, by some inscrutable process
of prevision, planned out his future beforehand. Had the priest foreseen
events?

No--he had only foreseen possibilities, on the day when it first
occurred to him that Romayne's marriage was assailable, before the court
of Romayne's conscience, from the Roman Catholic point of view. By
this means, the misfortune of Romayne's marriage having preceded his
conversion might be averted; and the one certain obstacle in the way of
any change of purpose on his part--the obstacle of the priesthood--might
still be set up, by the voluntary separation of the husband from the
wife. Thus far the Jesuit had modestly described himself to his reverend
colleagues, as regarding his position toward Romayne in a new light. His
next letter might boldly explain to them what he had really meant. The
triumph was won. Not a w