"You mean the illegitimate offspring of that impudent girl? Never, I repeat that I absolutely refuse to have anything to do with this matter. You will please excuse me now for my dressmaker is waiting for me."

"Your dressmaker will wait," said Adoni peremptorily, barring her exit and motioning her to a seat with an authoritative gesture, which she obeyed reluctantly. "Frances, you shall now listen to all I have to say before you leave this room. You refuse to be interested in Gerald's affairs - so be it then - but henceforth I wish to have you understand that you will not be permitted to interfere with mine. You shall, in the first place, not be allowed to involve me in debt by maintaining an establishment beyond our means. You will be obliged to curtail the expense of your wardrobe, at least to half of your former allowance, for I shall never prostitute the knowledge of healing to gratify your love for luxury and ostentation.

"You will further understand" he continued, "that you shall not be given any more of my valuable time to attend the fashionable frivolities you frequent but if you persist in plunging into the aimless whirl of social gaiety, you will do so without my sanction or escort. In the future you will make no engagements for me and cancel all those already made of any social nature."

Adoni had spoken with a calm determination, with an implacability that carried conviction, which had a magical effect upon Frances. Boastful as she was of her beauty she knew in her secret heart that she had been too daringly defiant of the social code or the lax morality of the set in which she moved, to be tolerated except as the wife of the rector of St. Paul's. Without the sanction of his high position she could not otherwise command social prestige, and if there came an open rupture between herself and Adoni, she would be completely ostracised.

Instantly Frances realized the position In which she was placed and knew that her only salvation was to conciliate and placate this obdurate spirit. She knew Adoni was not so different from other men when once his physical passion was aroused, and with superb audacity, and serenely confident of her seductive fascination, she did not hesitate in this momentary crisis to employ the artful wiles of the "modern Circe."

Leaning lazily back in her chair, Frances clasped her hands idly behind her head and contemplated her husband through half-closed lashes, as a veiled glance with mirthful mockery parted her rosy lips with a roguish laugh.

"Why not pronounce my sentence 'hard labor* or 'solitary confinement' on bread and water? No use dealing in half measures," she averred, with light raillery. Then rising and gliding with the soundless grace of a kitten to the side of Adoni, she placed her arms lovingly around his neck and continued teasingly: "You absurd boy, you never were cast for the role of a bluebeard. Has it ever occurred to you, that you take yourself just a trifle too seriously? Why do you talk as if it were unpardonable sin to enjoy life------?"

"To enjoy life is the birthright of every man and woman. It is only when we desert our true selves, deny our duty and seek to attend pleasure and enjoyment, bought at the price of disloyalty to higher obligations that they become dangerous and invariably turn to dust and ashes."

Frances remained silent for a few moments as if deeply impressed by his words. When she began to speak her tones had in them a note of proud tenderness.

"How grandly you put things, dear; you're a born preacher. Don, I can at least be proud of you, even if I can't agree and live up to your high ideals.

"I think I understand now what you mean when you said that pleasure is all right if it comes unsought and not bought at the cost of honor and duty. Am I not right, dear? Well then, listen. I have a perfectly unsolicited pleasure in store for us both, a pleasure which according to your own logic, you can't refuse," she continued triumphantly, "and the best of it is that it will be tremendously economical for you. And for me the best part will be - can you guess, Don?"

She gave him a demure glance from her eyes that were dangerously soft, and continued in a caressingly tender tone as Adoni shook his head. "The best part for me will be that I can have you all to myself again. Listen! The Singletons have invited us to spend the summer with them in their beautiful home at Mackinac Island, I believe, a quiet place where you can have your vacation. You have worked hard, dear, and need the rest. And I am worn to a frazzle with the season's triumphs and I am tired of it. All I want now is to have you for myself once more."

She placed her hands in clinging tenderness upon his shoulders, her eyes shone like stars. She was speaking rapidly in a scarcely audible tone.

"Don, do you know that I sometimes suffer the torments of hell, seeing all those lovesick women of the parish hanging around you. I haven't a particle of respect for that sanctimonious humbug, platonic affection or brotherly love; it's the sheerest hypocrisy; they are simply crazy about you and use their religion to hide their infatuation," she concluded teasingly.

"Do you realize, Don, that I have my trials as well as yourself?"

"But, Frances," protested Adoni, unconsciously defending himself against her criticism. "Do you not understand that there is a divine love; a love for all humanity? A love that reaches out to all struggling souls, a love unselfish and impersonal, that yearns to succor the weak, aid the needy, heal the sick and lift the fallen? I cannot refuse comfort and counsel to women just because they are women - whom I love first of all, as souls to be awakened to their mission in life and the true meaning of love - not generated as you think by earthly desires."

Frances, to Adoni's surprise, nestled closer to him, carefully concealing the scornful smile that curved her lips. She slipped her round, white arm about his neck, bending his head down until her lips were close to his ear, into which she whispered passionately: