"Harm?" Stowell turned white and began to stammer. "I .... no, that is to say .... no, I've never heard...." "And yet he promised to marry the girl?" "He felt responsible for her. He couldn't be a scoundrel." "Did he care for her--love her?" "I can't say that, Sir. He might have thought he did." "And now he loves another woman?" "With all his heart and soul, Sir." "But" (the Governor was puffing placidly) "he has promised to marry the little farm girl, and she's away somewhere educating herself to become his wife?" "That's it, Sir," said Stowell (his head was down), "and now he is asking himself what it is his duty to do. I have told him it is his duty as a man of honour to carry out his promise--to marry the girl, whatever the consequences to himself. Am I right, Sir?" There was another moment of silence, and then the Governor, taking his pipe out of his mouth, and bringing his open palm down on the table, said: "No!" "No?" "It would be marrying the wrong woman, wouldn't it?" "Well .... yes, one might say that, Sir." "Then it would be a crime." "A crime?" "A three-fold crime." The Governor rose, crossed the floor, then drew up in front of Stowell and spoke with sudden energy. "First, against the girl herself. She's an attractive young person, I suppose, eh?" Stowell nodded. "But uneducated, illiterate, out of another world, as they say?" Stowell nodded again. "Then does your man suppose that by sending her to school for a few months he will bridge the gulf between them? Is that how he expects to make her happy? Ten to one the girl will be a miserable outsider in her husband's house to the last day of her life. But that's not the worst, by a long way." "No?" "If he marries her it will out of a sense of duty will it not?" "Ye-es." "Well, what woman on God's earth wants to be married out of a sense of duty? And if he loves another woman do you think his wife will not find it out some day? Of course she will! And when she does what do you think will happen? I'll tell you what will happen. If she's one of the sensitive kind she'll feel herself crushed, superfluous, and pine away and die of grief and shame, or perhaps take a dose of something .... we've heard of such happenings, haven't we? And if she's a woman of the other sort she'll go farther." "You mean...." "Suspicion, jealousy, envy! She may not care a brass farthing about her husband, but her pride as a wife will be wounded. She won't give him a day's peace, or herself either. He'll never be an hour out of her sight but she'll think he's with the other woman. And then--what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander! If he has another woman as likely as not she'll have another man--we've heard of that, too, haven't we?" Stowell dropped his head. His heart was beating high, and he was afraid his face was betraying it. The Governor touched him on the shoulder, and continued,