rief.

"I cannot, cannot bear it!" she moaned to herself.

He was sitting gazing into the fire, when she timidly came into his
sitting-room. She had been too unhappy to sleep much and was again
looking very pale.

He seemed to speak to her like one in a dream. He was numb with his
growing misery and the struggle in his mind: he must leave her--the
situation was unendurable--he could not stay, because in her present
softened mood it was possible that if he lost control of himself and
caressed her she might yield to him; and, then, he knew no resolutions
on earth could hold him from taking her to his heart. And she must never
really be his wife. The bliss of it might be all that was divine at
first, but there would be always the hideous skeleton beneath, ready to
peep out and mock at them: and then if they should have children? They
were both so young that would be sure to happen; and this thought, which
had once, in that very room, in his happy musings, given him so much
joy, now caused him to quiver with extra pain. For a woman with such a
background should not be the mother of a Tancred of Wrayth.

Tristram was no Puritan, but the ingrained pride in his old name he
could not eliminate from his blood. So he kept himself with an iron
reserve. He never once looked at her, and spoke as coldly as ice; and
they got through luncheon. And Zara said, suddenly, she would like to go
to church.

It was at three o'clock, so he ordered the motor without a word. She was
not well enough to walk there through the park.

He could not let her go alone, so he changed his plans and went with
her. They did not speak, all the way.

She had never been into the church before, and was struck with the fine
windows, and the monuments of the Guiscards, and the famous tomb of the
Crusader in the wall of the chancel pew where they sat; and all through
the service she gazed at his carven face, so exactly like Tristram's,
with the same, stern look.

And a wild, miserable rebellion filled her heart, and then a cold fear;
and she passionately prayed to God to protect him. For what if he should
go on some dangerous hunting expedition, and something should happen,
and she should never see him again! And then, as she stood while they
sang the final hymn, she stopped and caught her breath with a sob. And
Tristram glanced at her in apprehension, and he wondered if he should
have to suffer anything further, or if his misery were at its height.

The