in his place. He endeavored to set you free from certain
unbearable conditions, and that is what I would have done. In setting
you free he rescued another girl from a life of degradation and despair,
but that is neither here nor there. John Trott deserves credit, and I
shall give it to him. Dead though you thought he was, he has always had
your heart. I've seen that in a thousand things you have done and said.
Your love for his mother was due to that, and God knows you've had your
reward there, for you awakened an immortal soul and have earned its
eternal gratitude and love. Don't think I am complaining, Tilly. I knew
when you came to me that your heart was not mine. I've never been able
to win it and I never shall."

"Why, you don't think--you don't think--" stammered Tilly. "Surely you
don't think that I still--still--" She suddenly stopped and stared at
her husband in a bewildered way. "You don't suppose, Joel, that I could
believe that he--that all these years John--"

Joel slowly swung his head up and down. "I believe that you both love
each other still. I was wrong to over-persuade you when you held out so
long against me. John Trott acted for your good in leaving, and I should
not have saddled on you myself, the greatest failure among men that ever
lived. I feel to-night as if the blight of an avenging God is on me for
my presumption. I have put two little children on your hands and feel as
incapable of protecting you and them as a crawling infant."

"I won't listen to you!" Tilly stood up. "You shall not abuse yourself
in this way. You acted exactly as you should. No one could blame you.
You are one of the noblest men living. Without you I'd have been lost
after my mother and father died. For you to say that--that John and I
still--I won't say the word. You have no right to utter it when all is
considered--you and me and the children. What right have you to--to
think that you could know John's heart, when you have not seen him for
eleven years? You may think you know mine. You may do so if you insist
on making yourself unhappy, but you have no right to--to pass an opinion
on--on the present feelings of my first husband. What are you going by,
I'd like to know? You don't suppose that John would tell Mr. Cavanaugh
such things, even if they were true? And how could Mr. Cavanaugh come to
you, my husband, and--and even _mention_ such a thing?"

Joel was on his feet also. The childlike and unconscious eagerness of