Emily was driven now and then to endeavour to make clear to him her inner life, to speak of her ideals, her intellectual convictions.

He listened always with an air of deep humility, very touching in a parent before a child.

Her meaning was often dark to his sight, but he strove hard to comprehend, and every word she uttered had for him a gospel sanction.

To-night his thoughts strayed; her voice was nothing but the reproach of his own soul; the high or tender words were but an emphasis of condemnation, reiterated, pitiless.

She was speaking thus out of her noble heart to him--him, the miserable hypocrite; he pretended to listen and to approve.