love you. I can say this to you here in the silence, yet I could not
speak it openly before the world. Why? Because such love is wrong?
Under God I do not know; only, the world would misunderstand, would
question my motives, would misjudge my faith. By the code I am not the
mistress of my heart; it has been legally surrendered. But you will
not misjudge, or question. If I could not trust, I could not love you;
I do both. Now and here, I put my hands in yours, I place my life, my
conscience, in your keeping. For good or evil, for heaven or hell, I
yield to you my faith. Tell me what I am utterly unable to decide for
myself alone: What is my duty, the duty of a woman situated as I am?"

He held her hands still, crushing them within his own, yet the color,
the hope which had brightened his face, faded. A moment the two sat
silent, their eyes meeting, searching the depths.

"Beth," he asked at last, "is this right?"

"Is what right?"

"That you should cast such a burden upon me. I told you I could not be
your conscience. All my desire, all my hope tends in one direction.
That which to you appears wrong, to me seems the only right course. My
heart responded eagerly to every word of renunciation spoken out there
in your indignation. They were just and true. They gave me courage to
believe the battle was over; that in soul and heart you were at last
free."

She lowered her eyes in confusion to the floor, her bosom rising and
falling to quick breathing.

"And now you discover me hesitating, undecided," she whispered, her
lips trembling. "I know I am; there are moments when I hold myself
unworthy of love. Yet believe me, I am honest, sincere, unselfish in
all my thought regarding you. Perhaps the trouble is that I know
myself, my nature, far too well; I dare not trust it to bring you
happiness, unless I can come to you with unsullied conscience."

"Is it thought of divorce which yet remains so repugnant?"

She glanced up into his questioning face, her own cheeks flushing.

"I shrink from it in actual pain," she confessed, in instant frankness.
"My whole nature revolts. Believe me, I am not blind, not insensible;
I recognize the truth--all you would tell me--of the inalienable rights
of womanhood. Neglect, distrust, brutality, open insult have all been
my portion. The thousands all over the world accept these as worthy
reasons for breaking their marriage vows. But can I? Can I who have
ever conde