would have been disappointed. But she had not
expected it, nor even thought about it. The faded flower had, indeed,
brought up her own withered blossom, as she had said. Had her husband's
discourse been of Johnny, instead of the senseless tirade against her
cousin, had he exhibited kindness, and generous sympathy for herself,
she might still have been won back to duty. But now, Thornton's words
and sneers, however deserved she might have felt them to be, caused her
to contrast the wretchedness of a continued life with him with what it
_might be_. Thus far she had been agitated by indecision and scruples,
they should henceforth trouble her no more. She was fully resolved,
even more than when she had promised Hubert.

In her own room, Althea withdrew the blinds and looked out at the sky.
It was covered with clouds, save one space of blue.

"Thus is _my_ sky covered with gloom," she murmured, "thus amidst the
darkness gleams my one ray of precious light. O blessed ultramarine,
from on high I take thee as a token. God is good; God does not will that
I should suffer; He does not will that I should love a demon. I am still
so young; a long life may be in store for me; a cruel, wretched life
with Thornton Rush, who assumed the guise of an angel of light to win me
to destruction. A peaceful, happy life with Hubert, for whom heaven
itself must have intended me. The sin is Thornton's, not mine, nor
Hubert's. On the contrary, to continue to live with Thornton would be a
sin. I can no longer deceive myself or him, I love him not; I believe I
could hate him!" and a gleam unusual shot from the large, dreamful eyes.

Althea forgot, while she thus soliloquised, that she could not thus have
felt, or could not have spoken such words, had not Hubert Lisle won her
love. While her heart had not been given to another, she could have
endured her husband patiently, fulfilling her wifely duties, and
possessing a conscience clear before God. She would leave her husband
then, not because of the harshness and cruelty allegible, but because
she had criminally strayed from her allegiance and given her love where
she had no right to give.

So blinded, however, was Althea, she did not perceive this. While she
was wronged, indeed, by Thornton, she was still farther wronged by
Hubert. No unkind treatment of the one could excuse her for listening,
without rebuke, to words of unlawful love from the other. They were an
insult to her good sense and virtu