"Yes, so did I," Evadne answered, frowning--"but I was mistaken. It was a mere affair of the senses, to be put off by the first circumstance calculated to cause a revulsion of feeling by lowering him in my estimation--a thing so slight that, after reading the letter, as we drove to the station--even so soon! I could see him as he is. I noticed at once-- but it was for the first time--I noticed that, although his face is handsome, the expression of it is not noble at all." She shuddered as at the sight of something repulsive. "You see," she explained, "my taste is cultivated to so fine an extent, I require something extremely well-flavoured for the dish which is to be the _pièce de resistance_ of my life-feast. My appetite is delicate, it requires to be tempted, and a husband of that kind, a moral leper"--she broke off with a gesture, spreading her hands, palms outward, as if she would fain put some horrid idea far from her. "Besides, marrying a man like that, allowing him an assured position in society, is countenancing vice, and"--she glanced round apprehensively, then added in a fearful whisper--"_helping to spread it_." Mrs. Orton Beg knew in her head that reason and right were on Evadne's side, but she felt in her heart the full force of the custom and prejudice that would be against her, and shrank appalled by the thought of what the cruel struggle to come must be if Evadne persisted in her determination. In view of this, she sat up in her chair once more energetically, prepared to do her best to dissuade her; but then again she relapsed, giving in to a doubt of her own capacity to advise in such an emergency, accompanied by a sudden and involuntary feeling of respect for Evadne's principles, however peculiar and unprecedented they might be, and for the strength of character which had enabled her so far to act upon them. "You must obey your own conscience, Evadne," was what she found herself saying at last. "I will help you to do that. I would rather not influence you. You may be right. I cannot be sure--and yet--I don't agree with you. For I know if I could have my husband back with me, I would welcome him, even if he were--a leper." Evadne compressed her lips in steady disapproval. "I should think only of his future. I should forgive the past."