He would have been still more at a loss to appreciate the force which the same vow exercised over Claudia.

Stafford himself had strengthened this feeling in her.

Although the subject of celibacy, and celibacy by oath, had not been discussed openly between them, yet in their numerous conversations Stafford had not failed to respond to her sympathetic invitations so far as to give himself full liberty in descanting on the excellences of the life he had chosen for himself.

Every word he had spoken in its praise now rose to condemn its betrayal.

And Claudia, who had been brought up in entire removal from the spirit which made Ayre and Eugene treat Stafford's vow as one of the picturesque indiscretions of devotion, was unable to look upon the breaking of it in any other light than that of a falsehood and an act of treachery.