know what you think of their getting married now."

I am afraid that if we had said what we thought of such a tardy and
futile proof of penitence we should have brought little comfort to the
mother's heart, but we looked at each other in the disgust we both felt
and said there would be a sacred fitness in it.

She was apparently much consoled.

It was touching enough, and I at least was affected by her tears; I am
not so sure my wife was. But she had instantly to consider how best to
propose the matter to Miss Bentley, and to act upon her decision.

After all, as she reported the fact to me later, it was very simple to
suggest her mother's wish to the girl, who listened to it with a perfect
intelligence in which there was no bitterness.

"They think I am going to die," she said, quietly, "and I can understand
how she feels. It seems such a mockery; but if she wishes it; and
Arthur--"

It was my part to deal with Glendenning, and I did not find it so easy.

"Marriage is for life and for earth," he said, solemnly, and I thought
very truly. "In the resurrection we shall be one another's without it. I
don't like to go through the form of such a sacrament idly; it seems
like a profanation of its mystery."

"But if Miss Bentley--"