day, all the better for me. Now,
you won't leave England the day you're married."

"Soon. I pray that it may be soon."

"Yes; well, on that morning, I'll have your father and Rhoda at my
lodgings, not wide from here: if I'd only known it earlier!--and you and
your husband shall come there and join us. It'll be a happy meeting at
last."

Dahlia stopped her breathing.

"Will you see Rhoda?"

"I'll go to her to-morrow, if you like."

"If I might see her, just as I am leaving England! not before."

"That's not generous," said Robert.

"Isn't it?" she asked like a child.

"Fancy!--to see you she's been longing for, and the ship that takes you
off, perhaps everlastingly, as far as this world's concerned!"

"Mr. Robert, I do not wish to deceive my sister. Father need not be
distressed. Rhoda shall know. I will not be guilty of falsehoods any
more--no more! Will you go to her? Tell her--tell Rhoda what I am. Say I
have been ill. It will save her from a great shock."

She covered her eyes.

"I said in all my letters that my husband was a gentleman."

It was her first openly penitential utterance in his presence, and her
cheeks were faintly reddened. It may have been this motion of her blood
which aroused the sunken humanity within her; her heart leaped, and she
cried "I can see her as I am, I can. I thought it impossible. Oh! I can.
Will she come to me? My sister is a Christian and forgives. Oh! let me
see her. And go to her, dear Mr. Robert, and ask her--tell her all, and
ask her if I may be spared, and may work at something--anything, for my
livelihood near my sister. It is difficult for women to earn money, but I
think I can. I have done so since my illness. I have been in the hospital
with brain fever. He was lodging in the house with me before. He found me
at the hospital. When I came out, he walked with me to support me: I was
very weak. He read to me, and then asked me to marry him. He asked again.
I lay in bed one night, and with my eyes open, I saw the dangers of
women, and the trouble of my father and sister; and pits of wickedness. I
saw like places full of snakes. I had such a yearning for protection. I
gave him my word I would be his wife, if he was not ashamed of a wife
like me. I wished to look once in father's face. I had fancied that Rhoda
would spurn me, when she discovered my falsehood. She--sweet dear! would
she ever? Go to her. Say, I do not love any man. I am heart-dead. I have
no heart exce