Vargas awkwardly stood up. He clung to the back of a chair and gazed at her steadily. His face, from a far-off solemn look of resigned desperation gradually took on an expression of prophetic resolve. “Pardon me,” he said, “if I must shock you. I wish to put to you a question.” “Put it,” she said coldly. “Mrs. Llewellyn,” the clairvoyant asked in a deep, slow voice. “Have you kept your marriage vows?” “Sir,” she said angrily, rising. “You are insulting me.” “Not a particle,” he persisted. “You have not answered my question.” “To answer it is superfluous,” she said, facing him in trembling wrath. “Of course I have kept them. You know how utterly I love my husband.” “You regard your vows as sacred?” he asked relentlessly. “Of course,” she said wearily. “Why then,” he demanded, “do you attach less sanctity to your verbal compact with your husband? Your duty as a wife is to keep one compact as well as the other. Keep both. Do not be recalcitrant against the terms of your agreement. Endure his indifference and strive patiently to win his love. It is your duty, as much as it is your duty to keep your marriage vows.” “You assume a rôle,” she said, “very unsuitable for you. Preaching misfits you, and it has no effect on me. I know and feel all this. But there is the plain meaning of that message. I shall open that grave.” “I have done all I can,” he said dispiritedly. “I cannot dissuade you.” “You cannot,” she said. “How then can I serve you?” he asked. “I have not yet discovered to what I owe the honor of this second visit. Why are you here?” “I wish you to be present at the opening of the coffin,” she said. “Are you sure,” he demanded, “that that would not be most unseemly? The first Mrs. Llewellyn, I believe, left no near relatives. But would not even her cousins resent such an intrusion as my presence there? Would not your husband still more resent it? Would it not be in very bad taste?” “I do not make requests,” she said, “that are in bad taste. As for my husband, he resents and will resent nothing, as he approves and will approve of nothing. My brother will be there and he will not find anything unseemly in your presence.” “Nevertheless I hesitate to agree,” said Vargas. “You have expressed,” said she, “a very deep regard for me, will you not do this since I ask it?” “I will,” he said with an effort. “Then whenever I write you and send a carriage for you, you will be there at the time named?” “I promise,” he said.