It was ten o'clock before Adoni descended to the breakfast room, a late hour for him, who was accustomed to rising with the dawn. The manifold duties of a large parish made it necessary for him to be about at an early hour. On this morning he had purposely delayed breakfasting that he might join his wife, who rarely rose before ten o'clock, as all her social diversions kept her out late. Therefore her breakfast was served any time to suit her pleasure. It was a meal they seldom shared in common, accordingly it was with considerable surprise that Frances greeted her husband. "Really, this is an unexpected pleasure," she exclaimed wonderingly, advancing with indolent grace and seating herself opposite him at the table.

"It must be something exceptionally urgent that induces you to waste so much valuable time at home - or is it------," looking quizzically at him, "that I have been guilty of something more atrocious than usual and you are going to lecture me?"

"That would indeed be a waste of time," Adoni replied with a grave smile. "No, Frances, it is not to discuss your affairs that I have remained. There are other matters quite as important that need to be adjusted and it is to consult you concerning them that I have waited."

"You overwhelm me with the sense of my importance. I fancied that I had long ceased to count in your lofty calculations. I assure you my stock of self-esteem has risen several points."

"It never was below par that I remember," remarked Adoni, indifferently, "but let us finish breakfast and talk afterward."

"I agree with you," laughed Frances. "I'm really too hungry to talk or listen."

During breakfast Adoni observed his wife curiously, as he had often done before. Frances Bourdalone was an enigma; undeniably beautiful in her physical perfection. A rare beauty, as impossible to ignore as the splendor of a magnificent sunset or the perfection of a queenly rose. Although, unlike the glory of the sunset or the subtle loveliness of the rose, her physical beauty, without the fragrance of the soul, excited admiration and intoxicated the sense of man with a desire for conquest; in woman it aroused a feeling of envy and distrust.

Adoni Bourdalone had yielded to its magnetic charm while still in his salad days, a theological student, preparing himself for the Episcopal ministry. He had reached the age of romance and with the unfolding of his mental, physical and spiritual nature, he felt the call of that primal instinct for a mate.

Frances Raymond, worldly wise at twenty, had already many love affairs but after being attracted by the handsome young hercules in her college town, was as nearly in love as her self-centered nature was capable to express, and her only desire was to subjugate the modest young student, whom she resolved to make blush and tremble like the veriest school-girl before the invincible power of her beauty, which was as wine to his senses. He suddenly found himself in the grasp of a titanic force, huge and fateful to the calm divinity scholar.

Adoni Bourdalone was captivated by physical beauty and like a man delirious with the glory of the sensation, was carried down the rapids into the great stream of life. Before the end of the summer he became engaged to the pretty maiden and married her the day after graduation. There followed a brief period of sensuous delight which usually ends in satiety, and which, if not deeply rooted in unselfish love, congenial temperament and intellectual equality, is sure to result in dissolution and disappointment.

Soon after leaving college Adoni was assigned to a remote little village in the mountains, where people were poor, ignorant and apathetic. The squalid monotony of their lives was filled with the daily grind of dull routine* pitiful tragedies and abject misery. There was no fashionable society and scarcely a man in the village whose admiration Frances coveted.

Soon, very soon, she began to fret and fume at the narrowness and obscurity of life in this remote corner of the earth.

Adoni realize her position and was infinitely patient with her, spending hours of time that should have been given to his work, in contriving some pleasure or interest that might brighten the days for her. Vainly he appealed to her sympathy in the needs and trials of the parish folk but being naturally indolent and extravagant herself, there was nothing of value she could teach to them had she manifested the inclination.

At last Adoni gave up his bitter task; his hopes of a true helpmate had vanished and finally addressed himself with redoubled zeal to his work, which afforded little time to brood over his own disheartening affairs.

The young Reverend Adoni Bourdalone put his whole soul into each day's demands; preaching, teaching, laboring with hand and heart, seeking by word and deed to strengthen, to uplift, guide and sustain their first feeble beginning in the new life he had awakened in his humble flock. Soon his fame began to spread abroad, his fiery eloquence and his wonderful power as a spiritual healer began to be sought beyond the confines of the village. Ere long, he was called to a larger charge, then to another, until at length his fame demanded the bishop to summon him to the city and give into his charge, the large, fashionable parish of St. Paul's, of which he was still the rector.

Here, Frances was in her element, using her position as a leverage to advance herself socially.

From the beginning she disclaimed the duties and responsibilities usually associated with the wife of a clergyman but instead identified herself with the gay, pleasure-loving world, in which she soon became the acknowledged beauty of fashionable society. To maintain the reputation of a professional belle took many elaborate clothes. The lavish expenditure necessitated by her extravagant wardrobe was a constant drain upon even the generous salary which the wealthy parish of St. Paul's allowed its rector and with a view to increase their revenue, Frances had repeatedly urged Adoni to charge large fees for his remarkable cures, which he absolutely refused to do, as it was far beneath his principles of true Christianity.