future action.

He spoke not one word of the terrible anger that racked him like a
physical nausea. Even in this crisis, his temperament and training held
fast. Reproaches on his part would only drive her more surely to the
place from which she seemed desirous to return. His flurry at the table
had shown him how she could match anger with anger, and over-power him by
sheer vitality. An instinct of self-preservation, and an astuteness that
now reached its final triumph, pointed the wiser way.

"Then you feel that you have made a mistake, Felicity?" he questioned.
"I have long divined a great trouble in you, though of course this is far
beyond my worst fears. If I am to be of any help to you, I must know
all."

For the first time in her life she felt that her father might be her
friend, her refuge in trouble. Hungry for sympathy and
understanding,--she knew not how hungry till now,--she told her story,
beginning impetuously and with starting tears. The bishop listened
attentively to the facts, dismissing from his mind her point of view, her
reasons for dissatisfaction with her life. Such crude immaturity he had
encountered a thousand times, though he had never suspected it in her.

The only facts that concerned him were: that the marriage had never
really been consummated; that there was no question of a child to
consider; that Felicity was anxious to escape from the man in whose
clutches she had placed herself; and that there were grounds for divorce.
Emmet himself might be induced--purchased--to bring action on the ground
of desertion. To be sure, such a cause was not acknowledged by the
Church as valid, but the bishop was prepared to lay aside his prejudice
in this particular case. Not for a moment did he think of holding his
daughter to her mistake, as soon as he knew the facts in the case. But
she made no mention of Leigh.

As the dangers with which he had at first seen himself threatened became
less formidable, and the way of escape suggested itself, his wonder at
her stupendous selfishness increased. What manner of woman had he reared
and educated with such care? In spite of the restraints of his questions
and comments, incredulous scorn was written in his expression and in the
gleam of his eyes. It was much that she had not been physically coarse,
but her psychic equation was beyond his solving.

Felicity could not fail to be conscious of this growing antagonism, and
the warmth of emotion with