ss of your soul you are trying to shield Michael--_for the second
time_."

He kissed her on the forehead and rose to go.

"Stop!" said Fay, almost inarticulately. "It isn't the second time. I
didn't shield him last time. I let him slide. But I will now ... I want
to tell you ... I must tell you ... Michael has been here, he came when
you were away in London. And he has begged me,--Oh, Wentworth, he has
implored me to--tell you everything."

Wentworth became very red. His face hardened.

"_He_ has begged you to tell me! He has gone behind my back and tried to
depute you to do it, to plead his cause for him. He has not even the
courage to come to me himself. No, Fay, I am going. It is no use
imploring me to stay. I'm not going to listen to you making excuses for
him. I don't blame you, but you ought not to have agreed to do it.
Whatever I ought to know I must hear from Michael himself. I shall go
over and see him to-morrow morning. Even you, dearest, must not come
between--Michael and me."

CHAPTER XXXV

Aimer quelqu'un, c'est a la fois lui oter le droit, et lui
donner la puissance de nous faire souffrir.

The following morning the Bishop and Michael were sitting in the library
at Lostford Palace. The Bishop was reading a letter, while Michael
watched him, sunk in an arm-chair.

Presently the Bishop thrust out his under lip, and gave back the letter
to Michael.

"Wentworth has dipped his pen in gall instead of in his inkpot," he
said. "For real quality and strength give me the venom of a virtuous
person. The ordinary sinner can't compete with him. Evil doers are out
of the running in this world as well as in the next. I often tell them
so. That is why I took orders. What do you suppose Wentworth suspects
when he says Alington has suggested a discreditable reason for your
being in the di Collo Alto villa that night, and that he is not going to
allow you to skulk behind a woman any longer? He will be here directly
to extort what he is pleased to call 'the truth.' What are you going to
say?"

"I don't know," said Michael. "That is the worst of me. I never know."

The Bishop frowned and rubbed his chin.

"I see one thing," continued Michael, "and that is that it's all
important that he should not break with Fay."

"That will be his first step--if he knows the truth."

"I am afraid it will, and yet--that's the pity of it, she will last
longer than I shall, and he does like her--a little--which