I should have paid him back--just a little--if I might." For there was one thing she had learned through her yearning fervour, not through any speech of his.

All the desire and pride in him would be fed full and satisfied if he could pass his name on to a creature of his own flesh and blood.

All the heat his cold nature held had concentrated itself in a secret passion centred on this thing.

She had begun to awaken to a suspicion of this early in their marriage, and afterwards by processes of inclusion and exclusion she had realised the proud intensity of his feeling despite his reserve and silence.

As for her, she would have gone to the stake, or have allowed her flesh to be cut into pieces to form that which would have given him reason for exultation and pride.