seems to me, bound by that promise. I fear that the wish to be
released from your engagement is to some extent a reason why it
should be kept. But your own conscience would surely be the best
guide, Lady Constantine?'

'My conscience is quite bewildered with its responsibilities,' she
continued, with a sigh. 'Yet it certainly does sometimes say to me
that--that I ought to keep my word. Very well; I must go on as I am
going, I suppose.'

'If you respect a vow, I think you must respect your own,' said the
parson, acquiring some further firmness. 'Had it been wrung from
you by compulsion, moral or physical, it would have been open to you
to break it. But as you proposed a vow when your husband only
required a good intention, I think you ought to adhere to it; or
what is the pride worth that led you to offer it?'

'Very well,' she said, with resignation. 'But it was quite a work
of supererogation on my part.'

'That you proposed it in a supererogatory spirit does not lessen
your obligation, having once put yourself under that obligation.
St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, says, "An oath for
confirmation is an end of all strife." And you will readily recall
the words of Ecclesiastes, "Pay that which thou hast vowed. Better
is it that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest vow and
not pay." Why not write to Sir Blount, tell him the inconvenience
of such a bond, and ask him to release you?'

'No; never will I. The expression of such a desire would, in his