! First his honor. Then his life. You
have taken everything he had. But there are still his shoes."

"Rachel!" said Hugh, suddenly, and he fell on his knees before her,
clasping the hem of her gown.

She pushed him violently from her, tearing her gown in releasing it from
his frenzied grasp.

"Leave me," she whispered. Her voice was almost gone. "Coward and liar,
I will have nothing more to do with you."

He got upon his feet somehow. The two gray desperate faces spent with
passion faced each other. They were past speech.

He read his death-warrant in her merciless eyes. She looked at the
despair in his without flinching.

He stood a moment, and then feeling his way, like one half blind, left
the room, unconsciously pushing aside Lady Newhaven, whom both had
forgotten.

She gave one terrified glance at Rachel, and slipped out after him.

CHAPTER LI

I thought, "Now, if I had been a woman, such
As God made women, to save men by love--
By just my love I might have saved this man."
--ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

"Has Lady Newhaven been here?" said the Bishop, coming into the study,
his hands full of papers. "I thought I saw her carriage driving away as
I came up."

"She has been here."

The Bishop looked up suddenly, his attention arrested by Rachel's voice.
There is a white heat of anger that mimics the pallor of a fainting fit.
The Bishop thought she was about to swoon, until he saw her eyes. Those
gentle faithful eyes were burning. He shrank as one who sees the glare
of fire raging inside familiar windows.

"My poor child," he said, and he sat down heavily in his leather
arm-chair.

Rachel still stood. She looked at him, and her lips moved, but no sound
came forth.

The Bishop looked intently at her.

"Where is Scarlett?" he said.

"Hugh is gone," she said, stammering. "I have broken off my engagement
with him. He will never come back."

And she fell suddenly on her knees, and hid her convulsed face against
the arm of a chair.

The Bishop did not move. He waited for this paroxysm of anger to
subside. He had never seen Rachel angry before in all the years he had
known her, but he watched her without surprise. Only stupid people think
that coal cannot burn as fiercely as tow.

She remained a long time on her knees, her face hidden. The Bishop did
not hurry her. At last she began to sob silently, shuddering from head
to foot.

Then he came and sat