eak, all the same. Other people can have intuitions besides
Mrs. Dinnett. It's an intuition--not second sight--but it is alive.
Supposing this marriage doesn't really make for the happiness of either
of them?"

"If they put religion and honour and justice first, it must," he
repeated. "You cannot, I venture to say, have happiness without religion
and honour and justice; and if Raymond were to go back on his word now,
he would be the most miserable man in the country."

"I wonder."

"Don't wonder. Be sure of it. Granted he finds himself miserable--that
is because he has committed a fault. Will it make him less miserable to
go on and commit a greater? Sorrow is a fair price to pay for wisdom,
Jenny. He is a great deal wiser now than he was six months ago, and to
shirk his responsibilities and break his word will not mend matters.
Besides, there is another consideration, which you forget. These young
people are no longer free. Even if they both desired to remain single,
honour, justice and religion actually demand marriage. There was a doubt
in my own mind once, too, whether their happiness would be assured by
union. Now there is no doubt. A child is coming into the world. Need I
say more?"

"I stand corrected," she answered. "There is really nothing more to be
said. For the child's sake, if for no other reason, marry they must. We
know too well the fate of the child born out of wedlock in this
country."

"It is a shameful and cruel fate; and while the Church of England
cowardly suffers the State to impose it, and selfish men care not, we,
with some enthusiasm for the unborn and some indignation to see their
disabilities, must do what lies in our power for them."

He rambled off into generalities inspired by this grave theme.

"'Suffer the little children to come unto Me,' said Christ; and we make
it almost impossible for fifty thousand little children to come unto Him
every year; and those who stand for Him, the ministers of His Church,
lift not a finger. The little children of nobody they are. They grow up
conscious of their handicap; they come into the world to trust and hope
and find themselves pariahs. Is that conducive to a religious trust in
God, or a rational trust in man for these outlawed thousands?"

She brought him back again to Raymond and Sabina.

"Apart from the necessity and justice," she said, "and taking it for
granted that the thing must happen, what is your opinion of the future?
You know Sab