"

"Easier said nor done, say I."

CHAPTER VIII.

Alone with Greta, Paul kissed her fervently, and his head fell on her
shoulder. The strong man was as feeble as a child now. He was prostrate.
"The black lie is like poison in my veins!" he said.

"What is it?" said Greta, and she tried to soothe him.

"A lie more foul than man ever uttered before--more cruel, more
monstrous."

"What is it, dearest?" said Greta again, with her piteous, imploring
face close to his.

"I know it's a lie. My heart tells me it is a lie. The very stones cry
out that it is a lie!"

"Tell me what it is," said Greta, and she embraced him tenderly.

But even while he was struggling with the poison of one horrible word,
it was mastering him. He put his wife from him with a strong shudder, as
if her proximity stung him.

Her bosom heaved. She looked appealingly into his face.

"If it is false," she said, "whatever it is, why need it trouble you?"

"That is true, my darling," he said, gulping down his fear and taking
Greta in his arms, and trying to laugh lightly. "Why, indeed? Why need
it trouble me?"

"Can you not tell me?" she said, with an upward look of entreaty. She
was thinking of what Hugh Ritson had said of an impediment to their
marriage.

"Why should I tell you what is false?"

"Then let us dismiss the thought of it," she said, soothingly.

"Why, yes, of course, let us dismiss the thought of it, darling," and he
laughed a loud, hollow laugh. His forehead was damp. She wiped away the
cold sweat. His temples burned. She put her cool hand on them. He was
the very wreck of his former self--the ruin of a man. "Would that I
could!" he muttered to himself.

"Then tell me," she said. "It is my right to know it. I am your wife
now--"

He drew himself away. She clung yet closer. "Paul, there can be no
secrets between you and me--nothing can be kept back."

"Heavenly Father!" he cried, uplifting a face distorted with agony.

"If you can not dismiss it, let it not stand between us," said Greta.
Could it be true that there had been an impediment?

"My darling, it would do no good to tell you. When I took you to be my
wife, I vowed to protect and cherish you. Shall I keep my vow if I
burden you with a black lie that will drive the sunshine out of your
life? Look at me--look at me!"

Greta's breast heaved heavily, but she smiled with a piteous sweetness
as she laid her head on his breast, and said, "No, while I have y