"I say, Lutie, if you care so much for him, why not--" He stopped in some confusion.

Clearly he had been on the point of trespassing on dangerous ground.

He wiped his forehead.
"I can finish it for you, Simmy, by answering the question," she said, with a queer little smile.

"I want to help him,--oh, you don't know how my heart aches for him!--but what can I do?
I am his wife in the sight of God, but that is as far as it goes.

The law says that I am a free woman and George a free man.