the occupations and state of mind of the other two.

"Shed light and ease my mind on this matter if you can," I said to
Arthur. "There are moments when I fancy that Edmee must be married, and
that they have agreed not to inform me until I return, and what is to
prevent this, in fact? Is it probable that she likes me enough to live
a life of solitude out of love for me, when this very love, in obedience
to the dictation of a cold reason and an austere conscience, can resign
itself to seeing my absence indefinitely prolonged with the war? I have
duties to perform here, no doubt; honour demands that I should defend my
flag until the day of the triumph or the irreparable defeat of the cause
I serve; but I feel that Edmee is dearer to me than these empty honours,
and that to see her but one hour sooner I would leave my name to the
ridicule or the curses of the world."

"This last thought," replied Arthur, with a smile, "is suggested to you
by the violence of your passion; but you would not act as you say, even
if the opportunity occurred. When we are grappling with a single one of
our faculties we fancy the others annihilated; but let some extraneous
shock arouse them, and we realize that our soul draws its life from
several sources at the same time. You are not insensible to fame,
Bernard; and if Edmee invited you to abandon it you would perceive
that it was dearer to you than you thought. You have ardent republican
convictions, and Edmee herself was the first to inspire you with them.
What, then, would you think of her, and, indeed, what sort of woman
would she be, if she said to you to-day, 'There is something more
important than the religion I preached to you and the gods I revealed;
something more august and more sacred, and that is my own good
pleasure'? Bernard, your love is full of contradictory desires.
Inconsistency, moreover, is the mark of all human loves. Men imagine