“It is not thou that I dread, Raoul, but myself,” answered the girl, with streaming eyes, though she succeeded in suppressing the sobs that struggled for utterance. “‘A house divided against itself cannot stand,’ they say; how could a heart that was filled with thee find a place for the love it ought to bear the Author of its being?  When the husband lives only for the world, it is hard for the wife to think of heaven as she ought.”

Raoul was deeply touched with the feeling Ghita betrayed, while he was ready to adore her for the confiding sincerity with which she confessed his power over her heart.  His answer was given with seductive tenderness of manner, which proved that he was not altogether unworthy of the strange conflict he had created in so gentle a breast.

“Thy God will never desert thee, Ghita,” he said; “thou hast nothing to fear as my wife, or that of any other man.  None but a brute could ever think of molesting thee in thy worship, or in doing aught that thy opinions render necessary or proper.  I would tear the tongue from my mouth, before reproach, sneer, or argument should be used to bring thee pain, after I once felt that thou leanedst on me for support.  All that I have said has come from the wish that thou would’st not misunderstand me in a matter that I know thou think’st important.”

“Ah, Raoul, little dost thou understand the hearts of women.  If thy power is so great over me to-day as almost to incline me from the most solemn of all my duties, what would it become when the love of a girl should turn into the absorbing affection of a wife!  I find it hard, even now, to reconcile the love I bear to God with the strong feeling thou hast created in my heart.  A year of wedded life would endanger more than I can express to you in words.”

“And then the fear of losing thy salvation is stronger than thy earthly attachments?”

“Nay, Raoul, it is not that.  I am not selfish or cowardly, as respects myself, I hope; nor do I think at all of any punishment that might follow from a marriage with an unbeliever; what I most apprehend is being taught to love my God less than I feel I now do, or than, as the creature of his mercy, I ought.”

“Thou speakest as if man could rival the being whom thou worshippest.  I have always understood, that the love we bear the Deity, and that we bear each other, are of a very different quality.  I can see no necessity for their interfering with each other.”

“Nothing can be less alike, Raoul; yet one may impair, if not destroy, the other.  Oh! if thou would’st but believe that thy Saviour was thy God—­if thou could’st but be dead to his love, and not active against him, I might hope for better things; but I dare not pledge all my earthly duties to one who is openly an enemy of my own great Master and Redeemer.”

“I will not, cannot deceive thee, Ghita—­that I leave to the priests.  Thou know’st my opinions, and must take me as I am, or wholly reject me.  This I say, though I feel that disappointment, if you persist in your cruelty, will drive me to some desperate act, by means of which I shall yet taste of the mercies of these English.”