k. He won't want to hear what
I've got to say, but he has got to hear it. And after all you're his
daughter, and if he has any bowels of compassion . . ."

Again I must have made some effort to speak, for he said:

"Yes, he's ill, but he has only to set Curphy to work and the lawyer
will do the rest."

I could not allow him to go any further, so I blurted out somehow that I
had seen my father already.

"On this subject?"

"Yes."

"And what did he say?"

I told him as well as I could what my father had said, being ashamed to
repeat it.

"That was only bluff, though," said Martin. "The real truth is that you
would cease to be Lady Raa and that would be a blow to his pride. Then
there would no longer be any possibility of establishing a family and
that would disturb his plans. No matter! We can set Curphy to work
ourselves."

"But I have seen Mr. Curphy also," I said.

"And what did _he_ say?"

I told him what the lawyer had said and he was aghast.

"Good heavens! What an iniquity! In England too! But never mind! There
are other countries where this relic of the barbaric ages doesn't exist.
We'll go there. We must get you a divorce somehow."

My time had come. I could keep back the truth no longer.

"But Martin," I said, "divorce is impossible for me--quite impossible."

And then I told him that I had been to see the Bishop also, and he had
said what I had known before, though in the pain of my temptation I had
forgotten it, that the Catholic Church did not countenance divorce
under any circumstances, because God made marriages and therefore no man
could dissolve them.

Martin listened intently, and in his eagerness to catch every word he
raised himself to a kneeling position by my side, so that he was looking
into my face.

"But Mary, my dear Mary," he said, "you don't mean to say you will allow
such considerations to influence you?"

"I am a Catholic--what else can I do?" I said.

"But think--my dear, dear girl, think how unreasonable, how untrue, how
preposterous it all is in a case like yours? God made your marriage?
Yours? God married you to that notorious profligate? Can you believe
it?"

His eyes were flaming. I dared not look at them.

"Then think again. They say there's no divorce in the Catholic Church,
do they? But what are they talking about? Morally speaking you are a
divorced woman already. Anybody with an ounce of brains can see that.
When you were married to this man he made a c