se were carried any further he held it to be
among the greatest of crimes. He was one of those who, if he had the
power, would have hounded any poor girl who, in the country phrase,
"had got into trouble," to the river brink and over it, as a creature
not fit to live; or if she escaped destruction, would have, and indeed
often had, pursued her with unceasing malignity, thinking that thereby
he did God service. His attitude towards such a person was that of an
Inquisitor towards a fallen nun.

Moreover, he could do this with a clear conscience, since he could
truly say that he was qualified to throw the first stone, being of
those who mistake personal aversion for personal virtue. Because his
cold-hearted nature rejected it, he loathed this kind of human failing
and felt good in the loathing. Nor did it ever occur to him to reflect
that others, such as secret malice, jealousy and all uncharitableness
on which his heart fed, might be much worse than the outrush of human
passion in obedience to the almighty decree of Nature that is
determined not to die.

These being his views, the feelings that the sight awoke in him of this
pair declaring their holy love in the accustomed, human fashion, can
scarcely be measured and are certainly beyond description. Had he been
another sort of man who had found some devil flogging a child to death,
the rage and indignation aroused in his breast could not have been
greater, even if it were his own child.

The one thing that Mr. Knight had feared for years was that Godfrey,
who, as he knew, was fonder of Isobel than of any other living
creature, should come to love her in a fuller fashion: Isobel, a girl
who had laughed at and flouted him and once told him to his face that a
study of his character and treatment of others had done more to turn
her from the Christian religion than anything else.

In a sense he was unselfish in this matter, or rather his hate mastered
his selfishness. He knew very well that Isobel would be a great match
for Godfrey, and he was by no means a man who underrated money and
position and their power. He guessed, too, that she really loved him
and would have made him the best of wives; that with her at his side he
might do almost anything in the world. But these considerations did not
in the least soften his loathing of the very thought of such a
marriage. Incredible as it may seem, he would rather have seen Godfrey
dead than the happy husband of Isobel.

Mr.