to be true to her, but Lena's kisses
more deeply stirred his blood. She was wonderfully pliant to his will,
as pliant in reality as he seemed to be to the will of his wife. For
longer or shorter periods he neglected her, only to come back again to
find her more helpless in his grasp, himself more than ever fascinated
by his power over her. It was a milestone in their nameless
relationship when he feigned jealousy of her other admirers, when she
admitted his right to question. Then came the night when she had
fainted beside him in the half-finished building, and he knew that the
jealousy was real. After that wild moment of parting at the gate, he
resolved to see her no more. The prize he had sought so long was
almost within his grasp,--the mayoralty and a wife who would make that
office but a stepping-stone to something higher,--and he would not
forfeit his reward. He meant also, as he had meant all along, to be
essentially true to his moral obligations.

The pathos of Lena's position he but dimly discerned, and his cruelty
was unconscious. The election almost swept her from his mind, and the
note in which she disclosed her refuge in his wife's house stirred only
a momentary anxiety. He would deny whatever she might say, and he felt
that she would quietly acquiesce in her fate when she knew the truth.
But he had forgotten the ring, and the ring was his undoing.

At the very moment when he turned his sleigh into Birdseye Avenue he
pressed his hand to his side and felt Felicity's letter crinkle beneath
his touch. He had carried it continuously with him, and knew its brief
contents by heart. She had hoped the letter might have been one of
pure congratulation; she had intended to keep her promise and to come
to him as his wife before the world, but now he must wait until she had
time to think over her course of action by herself. An explanation
would be useless; but she had recovered her ring, and she knew the
value he put upon her gifts, both this one and the greater gift of
which it was a symbol. And that was all.

The fact remained that she had not utterly cast him off. He would be
punished, but not forever, and he divined that his probation would end
with her return. He had a firm conviction that her sense of obligation
was like his own, that repentance and good conduct would restore him to
her, and he longed for an opportunity to tell her how it had happened,
how much less guilty he was than she might