Errington looked at her in silence for a moment, and then, without a word, walked towards the door of the room, at which he paused. "I have implored and entreated you to be merciful," he said, with terrible calmness, "you have refused to grant what I ask. Now I go back to London, to Mrs. Veilsturm, the woman you despise so much. You have driven me to this, and the result of it rests on your own head. You do not love me, you never have loved me, so I leave you alone in your immaculate purity, to forget the man whom you have despised and wronged." He was gone before she could utter a word, and she was left alone in the room, alone in the world, with nothing but her child to comfort her in the hour of need. CHAPTER XXIX. THE QUESTION OF MARRIAGE. "The sea is cruel, its white waves hide me, Lo I am weary and scant of breath, Thou to a haven of safety guide me, Stretch out thy hand, lest I swoon to death. "Thou art my God in this hour of peril, Yet in thy sight, I am lost and vile, All thy love, as the sea is sterile, I sink, I perish, beneath thy smile." There are always two sides to a question, especially to the question of marriage. One side is invariably taken by the husband, the other by the wife. Both claim their side to be right, and, as this is an impossibility, one side must be wrong. Which? It is a difficult question to settle, more difficult than the judgment of Solomon, more difficult than the judgment of Paris, and though the world, represented by the Law, generally plays the part of arbitrator in conjugal disputes, in this case it was referred to neither by the husband nor the wife. Under these circumstances it will be as well to argue both sides fairly, and pronounce a verdict in favour of the strongest. A case for the opinion of Society, unrepresented by any legal tribunal, the parties concerned conducting their own cases personally. On the part of the wife-- "When I married Guy Errington, I had no belief whatsoever in the masculine sex, such scepticism being due to my knowledge of the character of my father, Gabriel Mostyn. Before his illness I lived in almost conventual seclusion, and from the reading of books formed an ideal world, which I have since found to be as unreal as the fantastic visions of Oriental dreamers. "My world was based upon a delusive belief in the chivalry of men and the purity of women, and resembled in its visionary loveliness the Garden of Eden, before Eve tempted Adam with the fatal fruit. In this unreal world men were always young, handsome and true-hearted, while the women were beautiful in their forms and faces, pure in their lives. I dreamed that some day I, an inhabitant of this beautiful universe, would meet with a lover who would dedicate his life to mine, and we would go through life side by side in love and purity, until we exchanged this heaven upon earth for one even fairer.