“And now?” he interrupted gently.

She lifted her head, with one swift glance upward.

“You will think me wrong, quixotic, unnatural,” she acknowledged soberly.  “Yet I am not absolved, not free—­this man remains my husband, wedded to me by the authority of the church.  I—­I must bear the burden of my vows; not even love would long compensate for unfaithfulness in the sight of God.”

In the intense silence they could hear each other’s strained breathing and the soft notes of a bird singing gleefully without.  Winston, his lips compressed, his eyes stern with repressed feeling, neither moved nor spoke.  Beth Norvell’s head sank slowly back upon her arm.

“He took me with him from city to city,” she went on wearily, as though unconsciously speaking to herself, “staying, I think, in each as long as the police would permit.  He was seldom with me, seldom gave me money.  We did not quarrel, for I refused to be drawn into any exchange of words.  He never struck me excepting twice, but there are other ways of hurting a woman, and he knew them all.  I was hungry at times and ill clad.  I was driven to provide for myself, and worked in factories and stores.  Whenever he knew I had money he took it.  Money was always the cause of controversy between us.  It was his god, not to hoard up, but to spend upon himself.  My steady refusal to permit his bleeding my father enraged him; it was at such times he lost all control, and—­and struck me.  God!  I could have killed him!  There were times when I could, when I wonder I did not.  Yet in calm deliberation I durst not break my vows.  Three years ago he left me in Denver without a word, without a suggestion that the desertion was final.  We had just reached there, and I had nothing.  Friends of my family lived there, but I could not seek them for help.  I actually suffered, until finally I found employment in a large department store.  I expected he would return, and kept my rooms where he left me.  I wrote home twice, cheerful letters, saying nothing to lower him in the estimation of my people, yet concealing my address for fear they might seek me out.  Then there unexpectedly came to me an opportunity to go out with Albrecht, and I accepted it most thankfully.  It gave me a chance to think of other things, to work hard, to forget myself in a growing ambition.  I had already thrown off the old, and was laying ever firmer hands upon the new, when you came into my life, and then he came back also.  It is such a small world, such a little world, all shadowed and full of heartaches!”

In the silence she glanced aside at him, her eyes clear, her hair held back by one hand.

“Please do not look at me like that,” she pleaded.  “Surely, you cannot blame me; you must forgive.”

“There is nothing to blame, or forgive, Beth; apparently there is nothing for me to say, nothing for me to do.”

She swayed slowly toward him, resting one hand upon his shoulder.