m, and by
trusting to him had brought herself to this miserable pass. He could
not desert her. It would be better that he should go and endure all
the vials of their wrath than that. To her he would still be tenderly
loving, if she would accept his love without the name which he could not
give her. His whole life he would sacrifice to her. Every luxury which
money could purchase he would lavish on her. He must go and make his
offer. The vials of wrath which would doubtless be poured out upon his
head would not come from her. In his heart of hearts he feared both
the priest and the mother. But there are moments in which a man feels
himself obliged to encounter all that he most fears;--and the man who
does not do so in such moments is a coward.

He quite made up his mind to start early on the following morning; but
the intermediate hours were very sad and heavy, and his whole outlook
into life was troublesome to him. How infinitely better would it have
been for him had he allowed himself to be taught a twelvemonth since
that his duty required him to give up the army at once! But he had made
his bed, and now he must lie upon it. There was no escape from this
journey to Ardkill. Even though he should be stunned by their wrath he
must endure it.

He breakfasted early the next day, and got into his gig before nine.
He must face the enemy, and the earlier that he did it the better. His
difficulty now lay in arranging the proposition that he would make and
the words that he should speak. Every difficulty would be smoothed and
every danger dispelled if he would only say that he would marry the girl
as quickly as the legal forms would allow. Father Marty, he knew, would
see to all that, and the marriage might be done effectually. He had
quite come to understand that Father Marty was practical rather than
romantic. But there would be cowardice in this as mean as that other
cowardice. He believed himself to be bound by his duty to his family.
Were he now to renew his promise of marriage, such renewal would be
caused by fear and not by duty, and would be mean. They should tear him
piecemeal rather than get from him such a promise. Then he thought of
the Captain, and perceived that he must make all possible use of the
Captain's character. Would anybody conceive that he, the heir of the
Scroope family, was bound to marry the daughter of a convict returned
from the galleys? And was it not true that such promise as he had made
had bee