nthony; she
thought--we all understood--that you--"

"I know what you mean," he irritably exclaimed. "Why will you persist
in misreading me? I am not disloyal to Adele. Can't you see that my
devotion for her remains, and that my regard for Viola is no treason
to the dead? Adele will understand how vital, how necessary, Viola is
to me, for does she not know that I could not even communicate with
her if Viola went away? I do not love Viola as a boy loves, but as a
man who understands himself and her--as one who understands her
duties. It is a different love, but it is just as true, and it is high
and holy. Without her I would have gone mad. She saved me from
despair. Her union with me will make her an evangel to the earth-bound
millions."

Flattered as well as awed by this disclosure of her daughter's power,
the mother consented to his demand. Marriage with him would
safe-harbor Viola, would establish her in life, and would also carry
forward the work which she, too, considered of greater importance than
any other concern of her life.

"I don't know her mind, Anthony," she said, after a silence. "She
worries and puzzles me lately by her opposition to all our plans; but
I don't think she is attached to any of the young men she knows.
Still, she is not one to speak of such things. And if she consents--"

"When she comes, leave her to me," answered he, with returning
confidence. Deep in the man's egotistic soul lay the thought, "I know
why this girl is restless and uneasy--I know why she seeks afar off;
it is because she thinks me indissolubly bound to Adele. When she
finds that I love her, that I want her for my wife, she will come--her
vague rebellions will cease. Her longings will close round me--"

When the door opened and Viola stepped into the room, so tall, so
vivid, so tingling with life, the very force of his desire rendered
Clarke outwardly humble, drove him to a feigning of sadness and to the
voicing of desolate weakness. After the mother left them alone he
began speaking in a low voice with deep-dropping cadences.

"Viola, I have something important to say to you. I am much disturbed
over your renewed determination to go away. In the face of the great
work which is yours to do I do not understand how you can think of
dropping it in mid-air, so to speak, to go away on an errand which is
essentially selfish--as well as most unwise and full of danger. I
don't understand this renewal of restlessness on your pa