“I mean to have him find a way out of this difficulty.  He ought to have said to your father that this lot business belongs to a period gone by.  He did hint at it.  I supposed, of course, that he would see the thing came out right, since he let it go on.”

“Did you then believe it was only a play or a trick?” exclaimed Elise indignantly.

“Not quite, but I did not suppose that we were a company who would stand by an adverse decision.  You know, if you are the Elise I have loved so long, that I must love you always—­that I am not going to give you up.  Your father was bent on the test, but look at him and tell me if he expected this turn.  He is twenty years older than he was yesterday.  Folks used to resort to the lot in deciding about marriages, and it was all well enough if they didn’t care how it turned out, or hadn’t faith to believe in their own ability to choose.  A pretty way of doing business, though!  Suppose I had tried it on this place!  I have always asked for God’s blessing, and tried to act so that I need not blush when I asked it; but a man must know his own mind, he must act with decision.  I say again, I don’t like your teachers, Elise.  Between Sister Benigna and Mr. Wenck, now, what would be my chances if I could submit to such a pair?”

“You and I have no quarrel,” said Elise gently.  “I suppose that you acted in good faith.  You know how much I care—­how humiliated I shall feel if you attack in any way a man so good as Mr. Wenck.  You do not understand Sister Benigna.”

It was well that she had these to speak of, and that she need not confine herself to the main thought before them, for Albert could do anything he attempted.  Had not her father always said, “Let Spener alone for getting what he wants:  he’ll have it, but he’s above-board and honest;” and what hopes, heaven-cleaving, had spread wing the instant her eyes met his!

“It is easy to say that I do not understand,” said he.  “One has only to assume that another is so excellent and virtuous a character as to be beyond your comprehension, and then your mouth is stopped.”

“Ah, how bitter you are!” exclaimed Elise.  Her voice was full of pain.

Spener silently reproached himself, and said, with a tenderness that was irresistible, “You don’t know what temptations beset a man in business and everywhere, Elise.  It would be easier far to lie down and die, I have thought sometimes, than to stand up and meet the enemy like a man.  You will never convince me that my duty is to let you go, to give you up.  I can think of nothing so wicked.”

These words, which had a joyful sound to which she could not seal her ears, made Elise stop suddenly, afraid of Albert, afraid of herself.  “I think,” she said after a moment, “we had best not walk together any longer.  There is nothing we can say that will satisfy ourselves or ought to satisfy each other.”

“Do you mean that you accept this decision?” said he.