"Maybe you won't," Mason interjected with conjugal promptitude.
"Don't be too sure," she laughed, "and anyway, if you don't behave nicely I can always go back to L. Frankland."
When the man and his wife were alone in their room he returned to the moment of their betrothal.
"Dearest," he said, "when the priest went out and left us—"
"Yes."
"I felt almost as if he were trying to lay a curse on us."
"Yes, that was the meaning of it."
"When he said you couldn't receive absolution."
"Yes, our—their teaching is that without absolution a soul in sin is damned eternally."
"And you will never be afraid?" he asked, almost fearful of his wonderful new happiness.