"She isn't your wife."
"Doesn't that bind me all the tighter to her?"
"Your mother and I need you."
"Oh, father"
"You must do what you think is right."
"Father, I am doing what I think is right. It means hard work. It means giving up lots of things and it means all kinds of complications and difficulties. I would be glad if I could be a little boy again and begin all over. But I can't, and I have to go on. I didn't stay on the safe bank, I jumped into the river and I've got to swim."
Mr. Eaton said no more.
That night a carriage drove swiftly up to the rectory, and there was a quick patter of feet on the brick walk and an insistent ringing of the front door bell.
"How perfectly outrageous!" exclaimed Mrs. Eaton. "Edward! See who that person is."
The person was Mr. Ruggles. His face was white and stern.
"Alice is desperately sick," he said. "She wants to see you."
Edward thrust a white face into the parlor. He said simply: "I am going with Mr. Ruggles, mother. I don't know when I'll be back."
He shut the door quickly so as not to hear what
