change in your feelings?"

"It was thought better not," Marian faltered, after a pause.

"By you?"

"No; by my husband."

"And you suffered him to dictate to you in that matter. Against your own
sense of right?"

"I loved him," she answered simply. "I have never refused to obey him in
anything. I will own that I thought it would be better to write and tell
you the truth; but my husband thought otherwise. He wished our marriage
to remain a secret from you, and from all the world for some time to
come. He had his own reasons for that--reasons I was bound to respect. I
cannot think how you came to discover this out-of-the-world place."

"I have taken some trouble to find you, Marian, and it is a hard thing
to find you the wife of another; but the bitterness of it must be borne.
I do not want to reproach you when I tell you that my life has been
broken utterly by this blow. I want you to believe in my truth and
honour, to trust me now as you might have trusted me when you first
discovered that you could not love me. Since I am not to be your husband,
let me be the next best thing--your friend. The day may come in which,
you will have need of an honest man's friendship."

She shook her head sadly.

"You are very good," she said; "but there is no possibility at friendship