She walked to the nearest window, threw up the sash, and while she stood with the damp chill wind blowing full upon her the pastor heard a moan, such as comes from meek, dumb creatures, wrung by the throes of dissolution. When she turned once more to the light, he saw an unnatural sparkle in the dry, lustrous, brown eyes. "Dr. Hargrove, give me the license that was handed to you by Cuthbert Laurance." "What value can it possess now?" "Just now it is worth more to me than everything else in life,--more to me than my hopes of heaven." "Mrs. Laurance, you must remember that I refused to perform the marriage ceremony, because I believed you were both entirely too young. Your grandmother who came with you assured me she was your sole guardian, and desired the marriage, and your husband, who seemed to me a mere boy, quieted my objections by producing the license, which he said exonerated me from censure, and relieved me of all responsibility. With that morning's work I have never felt fully satisfied, and though I know that any magistrate would probably have performed the ceremony, I have sometimes thought I acted rashly, and have carefully kept that license as my defence and apology." "Thank God, that it has been preserved. Give it to me." "Pardon me if I say frankly, I prefer to retain it. All licenses are recorded by the officer who issued them, and by applying to him you can easily procure a copy." "Treachery baffles me there. A most opportune fire broke out eighteen months ago in the room where those records were kept, and although the court house was saved, the book containing my marriage license was of course destroyed." "But the clerk should be able to furnish a certificate of the facts." "Not when he has been bribed to forget them. Please give me the paper in your possession." She wrung her slender fingers, and her whole frame trembled like a weed on some bleak hillside, where wintry winds sweep unimpeded. A troubled look crossed the grave, placid countenance of the pastor, and he clasped his hands firmly behind him, as if girding himself to deny the eloquent pleading of the lovely dark eyes. "Sit down, madam, and listen to----" "I cannot! A restless fever is consuming me, and nothing but the possession of that license can quiet me. You have no right to withhold it,--you cannot be so cruel, so wicked,--unless you also have been corrupted, bought off!" "Be patient enough to hear me. I have always feared there was something wrong about that strange wedding, and your manner confirms my suspicions. Now I must be made acquainted with all the facts, must know your reason for claiming the paper in my possession, before I surrender it. As a minister of the Gospel, it is incumbent upon me to act cautiously, lest I innocently become auxiliary to deception, --possibly to crime." A vivid scarlet flamed up in the girl's marble cheeks. "Of what do you suspect, or accuse me?"