He crushed back something like a groan upon his lips.
"Do you think I should have done so, Mrs. Lynn?" he asked.
"I do not know how to answer you," she said, and her voice trembled. "From a woman's standpoint, I should answer yes. But men are unlike women, are they not?—harder, colder, prone to harsh judgments!"
"Yes, men are harder," he said, and was silent until she broke the strange stillness with her strange voice.
"Do you love Tennyson, Mr. Le Roy? I do. I think one of the grandest, most beautiful passages in the book is King Arthur's forgiveness of Guinevere's terrible sin. Do you remember those words:
"'Lo! I forgive thee, as Eternal God forgives'?"
"Her sin was not like Guinevere's," he said, hastily.
"And therefore the more easily to be forgiven," she said. "Do you not think that your wife suffered for her sin? And, after all, it was for love's sake. And women do and dare so much for love's sake, remember."
"You are speaking as if I did not forgive her," he said. "I had not told you that yet."
"But I fancied it must be so," she said, "because this is her grave."