I could live at peace with her?"

"Do you think that whatever I might do she would ever try to shoot
_me_?" he asked with half a smile. "Do you think that she would ever, by
word or deed, do anything that would hurt _me_?"

"Never." Susannah said the word as a matter of course.

"Or that my father would ever deny me anything that I seriously asked
for, or that he knew my happiness depended upon?"

"No, surely not; but, Ephraim--"

"Oh," he continued, growing distress in his voice, "Susannah, is there
any place else in the whole world that you can go for shelter and
comfort but to our house? You have spoken of this madness and delusion;
you are satisfied that you must leave--" He had meant to say "this man,"
but he was too shy, and he faltered--"that you must leave these people?"

She cast her eyes far in among the trunks of the close-growing trees,
upon one side and then upon another, as if looking for a way of escape.
Yes, surely her faith in Angel's creed had been hurt beyond recovery,
and she must free herself, but how? She dallied with Ephraim's offer of
asylum because she could think of no other.

"Yes," she said mechanically; "yes, but how can I?"

"Oh, my dear cousin, don't you see that it is wrong for you to stay one
day longer here? If you believed at first that the bond that united you
to this man was binding, you do not believe it now. You were so young
when you went, yet the thing cannot be undone on that account. You were
so beautiful that I had hoped a great and prosperous life lay before
you. Now, of course, that cannot be, but--but--at least you can live a
life of peace, live truly and nobly, using your faculties to glorify
God."

She began to see that he was trying to work up to something else that he
had to say. She followed him heedfully, knowing that with Ephraim the
steps in an argument were important. He saw some way out which she did
not see, and her whole mind paused in eager listening.

He turned and faced her again, lifting his eyes, holding out his hand;
his voice, usually weak, was strong. She knew that it was a strong man
who spoke to her.

"Susannah, will you take my name and protection?"

She gazed at him incredulous, and then, beginning to understand what it
was that he thought, and all that he meant, she leaned against one of
the cold gray tree trunks, weeping weakly like a child.

"But I am married," the words came with a long sobbing sigh.

"Not legally?" and then he a