told me that he was Stephen Krant, that my wife was really his wife,
that my children had no name, I--I--oh, God!' cried Pendle, covering his
face with his hands, 'it was terrible! terrible!'

'My poor friend!'

The bishop threw himself into a chair. 'After close on thirty years,' he
moaned, 'think of it, Graham--the shame, the horror! Oh, God!'

CHAPTER XXX

BLACKMAIL

For some moments Graham did not speak, but looked with pity on the
grief-shaken frame and bowed shoulders of his sorely-tried friend.
Indeed, the position of the man was such that he did not see what
comfort he could administer, and so, very wisely, held his peace.
However, when the bishop, growing more composed, remained still silent,
he could not forbear offering him a trifle of consolation.

'Don't grieve so, Pendle!' he said, laying his hand on the other's
shoulder; 'it is not your fault that you are in this position.'

The bishop sighed, and murmured with a shake of his head, 'Omnis qui
facit peccatum, servus est peccati!'

'But you have not done sin!' cried Graham, dissenting from the text.
'You! your wife! myself! everyone thought that Krant was dead and
buried. The man fled, and lied, and forged, to gain his freedom--to
shake off the marriage bonds which galled him. He was the sinner, not
you, my poor innocent friend!'

'True enough, doctor, but I am the sufferer. Had God in His mercy not
sustained me in my hour of trial, I do not know how I should have borne
my misery, weak, erring mortal that I am.'

'That speech is one befitting your age and office,' said the doctor,
gravely, 'and I quite approve of it. All the same, there is another
religious saying--I don't know if it can be called a text--"God helps
those who help themselves." You will do well, Pendle, to lay that to
heart.'

'How can I help myself?' said the bishop, hopelessly. 'The man is dead
now, without doubt; but he was alive when I married his supposed widow,
therefore the ceremony is null and void. There is no getting behind that
fact.'

'Have you consulted a lawyer on your position?'

'No. The law cannot sanction a union--at least in my eyes--which I know
to be against the tenets of the Church. So far as I know, if a husband
deserts his wife, and is not heard of for seven years, she can marry
again after that period without being liable to prosecution as a
bigamist, but in any case the second ceremony is not legal.'

'Mrs Krant became your wife before the