CHAPTER XXXVII
'I SHALL NEVER BE FREE'
| 'But there are true hearts which the sight Of sorrow summons forth; Though known in days of past delight, We know not half their worth.' Bayly. |
The words escaped from Michael almost unconsciously; he hardly knew that he spoke them aloud; but in his inner consciousness he had no doubt at all of the course that ought to be pursued. If he had been in Cyril's place he would not have hesitated for a moment. Dearly as he loved Audrey—and what that love was only he himself knew—he would have refused to marry her. He would have separated himself from her utterly, and at once.
Michael's strong, long-suffering nature would have carried him nobly through such an ordeal. He was a man who would have acted up to the spirit of the Gospel command 'to pluck out the offending eye, or to cut off the right hand;' there would have been no parleying, no weak dalliance with temptation.
'I love you, but it is my duty to leave you, so farewell for ever!'—that is what he would have said to her, knowing all the time that life would be utterly joyless to him. Would Cyril, in his hot, untried youth, be capable of a like generosity, or would he cleave to his betrothed with passionate, one-sided fealty, vowing that nothing on earth should separate them as long as they two loved each other?
'They will make her give me up!'—that was all he had said. That seemed to be the one deadly terror that assailed him.
Cyril had turned away with a groan when Michael spoke, but he made no audible answer, and the next moment his hand was on the door.