"Robert," he said impressively, "you must not despair, you must not give way in this fashion. You will see her face again, please God; you will see it as beautiful as ever, and with no cloud between you and it. I feel convinced of this, my dear fellow; and you must feel convinced of it too, if you will listen to your reason and not to your self-reproach. Just think what time does in all sorts of cases, and remember how much time has gone over since your wife left you." "_I_ think of it, Charley? Do you think I have not felt the passage of every hour of it?" "I know you have," said Yeldham; "but I want you to think of it in another sense--its own sense. It effaces every thing--kingdoms and flies, men's strength and women's beauty, the deepest loves, the bitterest hatreds, the cruellest injuries, the firmest resolves. Believe me, Katharine has outlived her anger, and has been held to her purpose by pride and circumstances. She must always remain your wife--she must always remember that she is so; and, depend upon it, she will not be sorry to return to a quiet home with you, to whom she is still so dear. Three years have had their effect upon her, be sure of it. Rely upon it, she thinks more of her duty and less of her resentment now." "Her duty!" said Robert, looking up from the palms of his hands with hollow, burning eyes; "her duty! O Charley, how can you or I talk of her duty _to me?_" "I certainly can," returned Yeldham. "I don't wish to go back over the past, but nothing can absolve her from that duty; and I look to the faults for which each has to forgive the other as the strongest bond between you for the future." Robert sighed, but made no reply. Yeldham continued: "And now, Robert, you will go to her at once, of course?" "I--I don't know, Charley," returned Robert, in a low and broken voice; "I don't know. I am--I am almost afraid." "Afraid, Robert, of what? That she will not see you? Well, that risk must be run; but I feel so confident that there is no danger of her refusing to do so, that I can hardly excuse your hesitation. I know I cannot inspire you with the confidence I feel, but at least act as if you felt it; and remember that the influence of time has been all in your favour. She has had leisure to forgive, if not to forget, one injury, and to remember and miss the innumerable proofs of love you gave her. You will start to-morrow, will you not?" Yeldham put the question in a business-like tone, which dismissed discussion, and obliged Robert to rouse himself from thought to action. "Yes, yes; since you think I ought, I will go to-morrow. Can you come with me, Charley?" "I don't know; if you wish it very much, I will try. Send round in the morning, and I will let you know."