afes, concerts, theatres, and
balls. In this character he met a poor woman of the people, and came to
love her. She was a good girl, with soft and gentle manners, but a heart
of gold and a soul of fire. He was a good man and he meant to marry her.
He did marry her. He married her according to the rites of the Church,
which are all that religion requires and God calls for."

Roma was leaning forward on her seat and breathing between
tightly-closed lips.

"Unhappily, then as now, a godless legislature had separated a religious
from a civil marriage, and the one without the other was useless. The
old Baron heard of what had happened and tried to defeat it. A cardinal
had just been created in Australia, and an officer of the Noble Guard
had to be sent with the Ablegate to carry the biglietto and the
skull-cap. At the request of the Baron his son was appointed to that
mission and despatched in haste."

Roma could scarcely control herself.

"The young husband being gone, the father set himself to deal with the
wife. He had not yet relinquished his hopes of seeing his son a
churchman, and marriage was a fatal impediment. A rich man may have many
instruments, and the Baron was able to use some that were evil. He
played upon the conscience of the girl, who was pure and virtuous; told
her she was not legally married, and that the laws of her country
thought ill of her. Finally, he appealed to her love for her husband,
and showed her that she was standing in his way. He was not a bad man,
but he loved his son beyond truth and to the perversion of honour, and
was ready to sacrifice the woman who stood between them. She allowed
herself to be sacrificed. She wiped herself out that she might not be an
obstacle to her husband. She drowned herself in the Tiber."

Roma could not control herself any longer, and made a half-stifled
exclamation.

"Then the young husband returned. He had been travelling constantly, and
no letters from his wife had reached him. But one letter was waiting for
him at Rome, and it told him what she had done. It was then all over;
there was no help for it, and he was overwhelmed with horror. He could
not blame the poor dead girl, for all she had done had been done in
love; he could not blame himself, for he had meant no wrong in making
the religious marriage, and had hastened home to complete the civil one;
and he could not reproach his father, for if the Baron's conduct had led
to fearful consequences, it