"Distressing?" cried Mrs. Dale. "It is worse than distressing. It is disgraceful, that's what it is,--disgraceful! What will Deborah Woodhouse say, and the Draytons? I tell you, Archibald, it must be put a stop to, at once!" "That is very easy to say," began Dr. Howe. "It is very easy to do, if there's a grain of sense in your family. Just send your niece"-- "She's your niece, too, Adele," he interrupted. But Mrs. Dale did not pause--"back to her husband. You ought to have taken her yesterday morning. It is probably all over Ashurst by this time!" "But you forget," objected Dr. Howe, "he won't let her come; you can't change his views by saying Helen must go back." "But what does it matter to her what his views are?" said Mrs. Dale. "It matters to him what her views are," answered Dr. Howe despondently. Somehow, since he had begun to talk to his sister, he had grown almost as hopeless as Helen. "Then Helen must change her views," Mrs. Dale said promptly. "I have no patience with women who set up their own Ebenezers. A woman should be in subjection to her own husband, I say,--and so does St. Paul. In my young days we were taught to love, honor, and obey. Helen needs to be reminded of her duty, and I'll see that she is." "Well, I wish you success," said the rector grimly. "And I'll have it!" Mrs. Dale retorted. "But you don't take into consideration," Dr. Howe said, "that Helen will not say one thing when she thinks another. How can you change a person's belief? I have been all over it, Adele. It is perfectly useless!" The brother and sister looked at each other a moment silently; then Mrs. Dale said, "Well, if you ask my advice"-- "I didn't; there's no use. Helen will be her own adviser, you can depend upon that. I only just wanted you to know the facts. No outsider can direct the affairs of a man and woman who are entirely determined." "I am not an outsider," returned Mrs. Dale, "though you can call yourself one, if you choose. And I am going to give you advice, and I hope you'll be sensible enough to take it. You have just got to go and see this Mr. Ward, and tell him he must take Helen back; tell him we cannot have such things in our family. A wife separated from her husband,--why, good gracious, just think of it, Archibald!" "Do you suppose I haven't thought of it?" demanded the rector. "And Helen must go," continued Mrs. Dale, "belief or no belief." Her brother shook his head, and sighed. "I don't believe it will do any good for me to see him, but of course I shall go to Lockhaven unless I get a favorable answer to my letter. I wrote him yesterday. But do you imagine that any talk of our feelings is going to move a man like Ward? His will is like iron. I saw that in his letter to Helen. I suppose it pains him to do this. I suppose he does suffer, in a way. But if he can contemplate her distress unmoved, do you think anything I can urge will change him? He'll wait for her conversion, if it takes her whole life."