Lionel caught
the hand of Lucy, and placed it within the other, his chest heaving with
emotion. He led her out of the room and through the ante-room, in
silence to the door, halting there. She was shaking all over, and the
tears were coursing down her cheeks. He took both her hands in his, his
action one of deprecating entreaty, his words falling in the tenderest
accents from between his bloodless lips.

"Will you _bear_ for my sake, Lucy? She is my wife. Heaven knows, upon
any other I would retort the insult."

How Lucy's heart was wrung!--wrung for him. The insult to herself she
could afford to ignore; being innocent, it fell with very slender force;
but she felt keenly for his broken peace. Had it been to save her life,
she could not help returning the pressure of his hand as she looked up
to him her affirmative answer; and she saw no wrong or harm in the
pressure. Lionel closed the door upon her, and returned to his wife.

A change had come over Sibylla. She had thrown herself at full length on
a sofa, and was beginning to sob. He went up to her, and spoke gravely,
not unkindly, his arms folded before him.

"Sibylla, when is this line of conduct to cease? I am nearly wearied
out--nearly," he repeated, putting his hand to his brow, "wearied out.
If I could bear the exposure for myself, I cannot bear it for my wife."

She rose up and sat down on the sofa facing him. The hectic of her
cheeks had turned to scarlet.

"You do love her! You care for her more than you care for me. Can you
deny it?"

"What part of my conduct has ever told you so?"

"I don't care for conduct," she fractiously retorted, "I remember what
papa said, and that's enough. He said he saw how it was in the old
days--that you loved her. What business had you to love her?"

"Stay, Sibylla! Carry your reflections back, and answer yourself. In
those old days, when both of you were before me to choose--at any rate,
to _ask_--I chose _you_, leaving her. Is it not a sufficient answer?"

Sibylla threw back her head on the sofa-frame, and began to cry.

"From the hour that I made you my wife, I have striven to do my duty by
you, tenderly as husband can do it. Why do you force me to reiterate
this declaration, which I have made before?" he added, his face working
with emotion. "Neither by word nor action have I been false to you. I
have never, for the briefest moment, been guilty behind your back of
that which I would not be guilty of in your prese