the veiled accusation was a guess, and nothing more. This knowledge
helped him to remain apparently unmoved. It did more. It showed him
Felicity's pride in remaining silent concerning a rival so much beneath
her. This had been her attitude all along,--to consider Lena beneath
contempt,--and he burned to make her suffer for it. He was filled with
fury against himself also for yielding at the last to his passion for
Lena, after a long and successful struggle. It was this that made it
impossible for him to say plainly that he would not give Felicity up,
though he had tormented her father by implying it. This method of
revenge was the only one now left him.

"But your religion," he suggested, with a sneer.

"Excuse me," the bishop returned, with patient dignity, "if I feel that
I am not accountable to you for the manner in which I defend or fail to
defend the canons of my Church. My daughter acts as an individual who
is of age, and her reckoning is with the civil law. To clear up your
evident confusion of mind, I will explain that I violate no canons of
the Church in eliminating myself officially from the situation. I am
merely suggesting to you, as one individual to another, a way out of a
most unhappy complication. Besides, you evade the hard fact that this
was no marriage in the full sense of the word."

Emmet realised that his shaft had fallen short, and the knowledge stung
him to fury.

"I will not bring any such action!" he cried recklessly, rising in
white heat. "I will not release her!"

"We shall accomplish nothing by violence," the bishop interposed.
"Pray, resume your chair and hear me out. A marriage without love is a
mere mockery and sham. You do not love my daughter, and she does not
love you. We will not argue about that, if you please, for it is not
possible to contradict an evident fact. You are an ambitious man, and
marriage is only one of the ways by which ambition can be furthered.
In this case, the marriage is out of the question; but if you will name
a compensation which you deem adequate recompense for your
disappointment, we shall be ready to listen to the proposition."

Emmet had taken his seat at the bishop's request, but this cynical
proposal to buy him off caused him to spring to his feet again in an
indignation that was not altogether unjustified. He was a money-maker
himself, and had not coveted Felicity's wealth. From her he had sought
only social advantage and revenge