ind. And when he suddenly looked up with the words,
"And now _I_ am expected to take their place--to profit by their deaths!
What rightful law of God or man binds me to accept a life and a
responsibility that I loathe?" Julie drew back as though he had struck
her. His face, his tone were not his own--there was a violence, a threat
in them, addressed, as it were, specially to _her_. "If it were not for
you," his eyes seemed to say, "I could refuse this thing, which will
destroy me, soul and body."

She was silent, her pulses fluttering, and he resumed, speaking like one
groping his way:

"I could have done the work, of course--I have done it for five years. I
could have looked after the estate and the people. But the money, the
paraphernalia, the hordes of servants, the mummery of the life! Why,
Julie, should we be forced into it? What happiness--I ask you--what
happiness can it bring to either of us?"

And again he looked up, and again it seemed to Julie that his expression
was one of animated hostility and antagonism--antagonism to her, as
embodying for the moment all the arguments--of advantage, custom,
law--he was, in his own mind, fighting and denying. With a failing heart
she felt herself very far from him. Was there not also something in his
attitude, unconsciously, of that old primal antagonism of the man to
the woman, of the stronger to the weaker, the more spiritual to the
more earthy?

"You think, no doubt," he said, after a pause, "that it is my duty to
take this thing, even if I _could_ lay it down?"

"I don't know what I think," she said, hurriedly. "It is very strange,
of course, what you say. We ought to discuss it thoroughly. Let me have
a little time."

He gave an impatient sigh, then suddenly rose.

"Will you come and look at them?"

She, too, rose and put her hand in his.

"Take me where you will."

"It is not horrible," he said, shading his eyes a moment. "They are at
peace."

With a feeble step, leaning on her arm, he guided her through the great,
darkened house. Julie was dimly aware of wide staircases, of galleries
and high halls, of the pictures of past Delafields looking down upon
them. The morning was now far advanced. Many persons were at work in the
house, but Julie was conscious of them only as distant figures that
vanished at their approach. They walked alone, guarded from all
intrusion by the awe and sympathy of the unseen human beings
around them.

Delafield opened the cl