"But," said Norrena, "if she was a person he could not love and respect as a wife, was it not better that he should refuse to consummate the relation?"

"Certainly not," said the Captain. "When he was married to her, that ended it. I have no doubt that he could have lived agreeably enough with her if he had wanted to."

"I see," said Norrena, "that you are not likely to withdraw your objection, so we will not continue the discussion. It is my duty to decide in favor of the true and against the false, and hence I must over-rule your objection to the registration of Paul Huston and Dione as husband and wife."

"Do as you please," said Captain Ganoe. "It does not change the facts in the case. It is strange to me that any woman would accept a man as a husband under such circumstances. So far as I am concerned with my present light on the subject, I could not as a conscientious man, consent to marry a woman, no matter how much I loved her, who according to law, was the wife of another man. As an honorable man I would advise her to return to her husband."

I had been listening intently to this inquiry. Here was a case almost identical with my own. I had married my guardian of my own free will, and like Huston, when I discovered the fraud by which my consent was secured, I had taken to the sea, and now the one whom I had loved more than life itself, and for whom I had searched for years, and with whom I had braved all the dangers of the frozen north in order to be near his person, had for the second time deliberately declared that he would not marry such a woman no matter how much he loved her. My entire being was aroused in revolt against such injustice and I arose and said:

"For the second time, Captain Ganoe, I have heard you express this atrocious sentiment, which ignores love, the only thing which can sanctify the union of the sexes in the marriage relation, and place above that the debasing doctrine that man made laws are superior to the laws of God, which are implanted in the human soul. Without love, marriage is a curse, unholy and impure. Love is an inspiration and cannot be transferred by the state or the church. If you have never realized what true love signifies, of course you are excusable, but those who have felt it, will never agree with you. Huston was right, to take the law into his own hands and separate from his imbecile wife. To have consummated the union, would have been a crime against her, against himself and against humanity. And now, so far as I am concerned, I shall drop this question. No good can come of the discussion, and other questions of far-reaching import to the toiling millions of the outer world, demand my undivided attention. Let us do what we can to abolish poverty by removing time honored wrongs, and when women are economically free, they will be able to select companions who will not trample love under the heel of antiquated wrong."

So saying I walked out of the cabin without waiting for reply. Oqua followed me and as she came up by my side, said:

"Do not be disturbed. Your victory is won. Captain Ganoe cannot long withstand the force of truth. And he has now placed his position so plainly before our people that the truth will reach him from all sides in a way of which he never dreamed before."

"Yes," I said, "I have won a victory, but it is over myself. He may come to me, when he has removed the clouds from his mind and the bitterness from his heart. I will never make any overtures. I can love humanity and work for it, and even if my work is not understood, I know that it will exercise an elevating influence on myself. My motto for the future will be, 'Plenty of room at the top where true love and a sterling devotion to the right, will be understood and appreciated.'"

"You talk like a philosopher," said Oqua, "and I have no doubt that your heroism of character will come out triumphant, but do not permit your resentment of a wrong to engender a feeling of bitterness toward Captain Ganoe."