activity. No, he would never humble himself to a woman! That was the
unalterable state of his mind. If Amanda would return, and assume
her old place and her old relation, he would forget and forgive all.
This far he would go, and no farther. She had left of her own free
will, and that must bring her back.

"You can say all this to her in any way you please; but I will not
seek her and enter into an humble supplication for her return. I
have too much self-respect--and am too much of a man--for that. If
she finds the struggle to do so hard and humiliating, she will be
the more careful how she places herself again in such a position.
The lesson will last her a life-time."

"You are wrong; depend upon it, you are wrong!" urged Mr. Edmondson.
"There must be yielding and conciliation on both sides."

"I can do no more than I have said. Passive I have been from the
first, and passive I will remain. As for our child, I wish you to
say to her, that I shall not consent to a separation. It is my child
as much as hers; moreover, as father, my responsibility is greatest,
and I am not the man to delegate my duties to another. Possession of
the child, if driven to that extremity, I will obtain through aid of
the law. This I desire that she shall distinctly understand. I make
no threat. I do not wish her to view the declaration in that light.
I affirm only the truth, that she may clearly understand all the
consequences likely to flow from her ill-advised step."

The more Mr. Edmondson sought to convince Mr. Lane of his error, the
more determinedly did he cling to it; and he retired at last, under
the sad conviction that the unhappy couple had seen but the