ruggled for utterance. "'A house divided against itself cannot stand,'
they say; how could a heart that was filled with thee find a place for
the love it ought to bear the Author of its being? When the husband
lives only for the world, it is hard for the wife to think of heaven as
she ought."

Raoul was deeply touched with the feeling Ghita betrayed, while he was
ready to adore her for the confiding sincerity with which she confessed
his power over her heart. His answer was given with seductive tenderness
of manner, which proved that he was not altogether unworthy of the
strange conflict he had created in so gentle a breast.

"Thy God will never desert _thee_, Ghita," he said; "thou hast nothing
to fear as my wife, or that of any other man. None but a brute could
ever think of molesting thee in thy worship, or in doing aught that thy
opinions render necessary or proper. I would tear the tongue from my
mouth, before reproach, sneer, or argument should be used to bring thee
pain, after I once felt that thou leanedst on me for support. All that I
_have_ said has come from the wish that thou would'st not misunderstand
me in a matter that I know thou think'st important."

"Ah, Raoul, little dost thou understand the hearts of women. If thy
power is so great over me to-day as almost to incline me from the most
solemn of all my duties, what would it become when the love of a girl
should turn into the absorbing affection of a wife! I find it hard, even
now, to reconcile the love I bear to God with the strong feeling thou
hast created in my heart. A year of wedded life would endanger more than
I can express to you in words."

"And then the fear of losing thy salvation is stronger than thy earthly
attachments?"

"Nay, Raoul, it is not _that_. I am not selfish or cowardly, as respects
myself, I hope; nor do I think at all of any _punishment_ that might
follow from a marriage with an unbeliever; what I most apprehend is
being taught to love my God less than I feel I now do, or than, as the
creature of his mercy, I ought."

"Thou speakest as if man could rival the being whom thou worshippest. I
have always understood, that the love we bear the Deity, and that we
bear each other, are of a very different quality. I can see no necessity
for their interfering with each other."

"Nothing can be less alike, Raoul; yet one may impair, if not destroy,
the other. Oh! if thou would'st but believe that thy Saviour was thy
God--if thou c