He would not ask her to
remain to join in a service she loathed. But when she thought of her
aunt, and of the voice of an outraged Puritan neighbourhood, her heart
naturally failed her.

"I cannot."

"Is this man more to you--I do not say than the ties of kindred, for
that is natural--but more to you than the obligation to live a life of
reason and duty?"

"No." Susannah spoke the answer aloud because it arose so simply and
strongly within her. Had she not just come to a crisis in which her
desire to abide by reason proved far stronger than the feeling which
bound her to Halsey? And yet, as she thought of his love and his
tenderness for her, she felt only pity for him, even if he had told a
lie.

Ephraim had grown calmer, but at the clear denial his heart again beat
against the breath he was trying to draw. She did not love Halsey then!
she was not married to him! He could conceive of nothing that could have
brought that word and tone to Susannah's lips if she were bound.

"Does not duty and reason, does not even mere sanity, call upon you to
come back with me, Susannah, and spend your life where you can exercise
the gifts God has given you among those who abide by law and order?"

"Perhaps, Ephraim, it is so; but I am too great a coward. Think of the
shame that I should have to endure from my aunt, and all the world would
taunt me with my folly and madness. I think it would kill what little
good there is in me. For although I should be willing to suffer if I
have done wrong, yet there would be no use in going where my punishment
would be greater than I could bear."

He was shocked to think of the days that had elapsed before he had come
to her. She had suffered much before she could speak in this way, and
when he saw how mild and sad she was, and, above all, rational, he
longed to comfort her as he would comfort a child with caresses and the
promise of future joys. He could give her neither, because he believed
that she cared for neither caress nor joy from his hand. There was
something he could offer--all that he had to give that she could take,
but the offer was so hard to make that he prefaced it.

"A way might be found by which you could return to our house, Susannah,
and be troubled by no spoken reproach, and you could live down that
which was unspoken." He paused a minute, and then said, "But I would
know first that you leave all that pertains to your life here freely.
You have found it true, what is s