of the Church to reckon with. Loathing her bonds, as any true-hearted
maiden must, would Margery consent to have them broken by the law? I
knew well she would not. Though our poor knotting of the tie had been
little better than a tragic farce, it lacked nothing of force to bind
the tender conscience of a woman bred to look upon the churchly rite as
final.

So, twist and turn it as I might, the coil was desperate; and as I
strode on gloomily, measuring this the first stage in a pilgrimage I had
never thought to make, a fire of sullen anger began to smoke and
smolder within me, and I could find it in my heart to curse the cruel
kindness of my rescuers; to sorrow in my inmost soul that they had come
between to make a living recreant of one who would fain have died an
honest man.




XIV

HOW THE BARONET PLAYED ROUGE-ET-NOIR


The sun was well above the tree-tops, and the morning was abroad for all
the furred and feathered wood-folk, when I forsook the Indian path to
make a prudent circle of reconnaissance around the cabin in the maple
grove.

Happily, there was no need for the cautionary measure. The hunting lodge
was undiscovered as yet by any enemy; and when I showed myself my poor