For a moment the Bishop was speechless. Then recovering from his astonishment, he rose and stepped to the hearthrug, and standing with his back to the fire, he said, as if addressing an assembly,
"Beautiful and noble, dear lady! To be ready to become the wife of the fallen man just when the whole world is hissing at him in chorus, to inspire him day by day with the hope of a great resurrection, of taking up manful work anew, of regaining all he has lost and more—yes, it is beautiful and noble."
"Then you will be willing to marry us, Sir?" said Fenella.
The Bishop hesitated, and then asked Fenella what view the Governor took of her intention.
"He disapproves of it altogether, and says no clergyman in the island can marry us without incurring his displeasure."
"Ah!"
"But I have always understood that the Bishop is a baron in his own right and therefore independent of the Governor."
"True! That's true! Still...."
The river of rhetoric had suddenly stopped.
"Well?"