"In the separation, the–the divorce," interposed the lawyer, "you may of course command my services."
"Of course," murmured Britton, "it must be given into no other hands. You can accomplish an immediate, quiet dissolution without any scandal."
"My services are bound up with Ainsworth's," Trascott put in. "My assistance may be needed afterwards, in the matter of home or occupation for your wife, though a settlement could provide for her fully."
"Thank you, Trascott," said Rex. "Just transfer the comradeship I have loved to my–to Mercia, and I shall always be grateful!"
Britton looked at Mercia with the pangs of renunciation rending and torturing him.
"Are you prepared for what they say is inevitable?" he asked.
"Are you, yourself?" she questioned in turn.
"I–I think so," Rex said, with the feeling of a man pronouncing his own death-knell. "We cannot be mistaken in going by the two guiding institutions of the land."
"What ones?" Mercia asked.
"The Church and the Law! Their voices are immutable."