Honor writhed in misery.
"Are you sinless?" his wife had asked him.
From his own showing, he was a most deliberate sinner, ready to sacrifice an innocent soul for his own gratification. Only a miracle had stopped him.
Words he had spoken returned to her mind—
"Your God to whom you pray every night of your life will see fit to save you from such as I!"
The pathos of his dread, the wistful appeal in his voice, had touched her deeply. She could hear it still, and her heart went out to him in sympathy. Her poor, unhappy darling! But,—had God really interfered to save her from the pit he was digging for her feet?
If he were free, she would have no wish to be saved from him, sinner though he were. She would take him gladly, and, God helping, slay the demon in him forever.
But he was not free. The task was not for her.
The Church would not marry them if it were known that he was not free.
It did not enter into her consciousness that she could go to him in spite of God or the law. Defiance of laws, human and divine, was impossible to Honor who had been reared to respect both from her cradle.