“Hush!” he said in a low [52] ]voice; “I forbid you to speak of him before me with any thing but respect”; then softly to himself, “with any thing but reverence; with any thing but devotion.”
The other was silent, awed for the moment. Then his anger rose.
“Dare you speak openly like that? Where is your penitence, your shame? have you no sense of the horror of your sin?”
“There is no sin for which I should feel shame,” he answered very quietly. “God gave me my love for him, and He gave him also his love for me. Who is there that shall withstand God and the love that is His gift?”
“Dare you profane the name [53] ]by calling such a passion as this ‘love’?”
“It was love, perfect love: it is perfect love.”
“I can say no more now; to-morrow all shall be known. Thank God, you shall pay dearly for all this disgrace,” he added, in a sudden outburst of wrath.
“I am sorry you have no mercy;—not that I fear exposure and punishment for myself. But mercy can seldom be found from a Christian,” he added, as one that speaks from without.
The rector turned towards him suddenly, and stretched out his hands.
“Heaven forgive me my hardness of heart,” he said. “I have been cruel; I have spoken cruelly in my distress. Ah, [54] ]can you say nothing to defend your crime?”