and asked if soon meant to day round whose neck said he never cared for story of a sin it was not said frank his voice sounding as though he were moving away and had left her all alone for the garden was almost in darkness now � the night had taken its revenge and extinguished those colours that most vividly by day � and were now but black shadows and only the ghosts of the evening gave a vague suspicion of their presence was it � was it said in a whisper that barely expected a response yes replied a voice but a little way her heart is bound up in him � she lives but in his life and she watches over him in your absence as only you could do � but she does not your place for awhile there was silence and his whole soul to her knowing that she was weeping then she said � there are things that even god does not with like the growing seed or a human soul to become good in its own way and she is good her hand stole out to his in the darkness and so in mute accord they moved towards the light consecrated to each other he by his sacrifice for her she by her old love for him and new passionate desire for his repentance they have the faces of angels said mrs in a low voice to the duke as the two entered but even angels may trip and fall sometimes and nobody ought to know that better than � satan y of a sin she nodded towards mr as she spoke who looked singularly old and haggard in contrast with the two beautiful young people and as if her thought had reached him mr suddenly looked at himself in a mirror opposite then at the two � and a curious idea took possession of his mind chapter vii such a getting up stairs never was seen that evening was the last in which mr and the his wife and frank were alone for within three days the house was filled with those persons that mr had prompted the to invite by a of brighter wits from town � these latter expressly born as the county supposed to teach solid men the value of their own slow there was scarcely a man there who had not known and frank s father and gradually he made his way with each for the wives judgments were always in his favour and on all sides the verdict that he had been more unfortunate than was returned and indeed to the women frank was the central figure of the house as unconsciously to herself was to the men producing an unexpected effect on their minds and almost them to the that as human beings are divided into three classes � story of a sin men women and � so there might be a fourth class of which was a representative she had no taste for � perhaps she was a total from birth having loved but once and once only and so escaped any of the poison that might be lingering in her system and when certain county on mr s with the offered their veiled admiration something that was neither woman nor child flashed out of her eyes and checked them for men are but what women make them as in their turn they their features whether base or noble on what they deal with and the mere recognition of a pure woman will shed an influence in circles upon the souls of men who have painfully taught themselves that no such creature exists but the wives who quickly frank s attitude towards her said that it was easy for a woman secretly so adored to decline ordinary there was a general conviction too that mr was amusing the rather than himself being too finished a man of the world to display in public his profound affection for his wife and meanwhile tired of it all and longed for a sight of her children of whom she had not received so much as a message for two whole days frank s position was now established and why would not mr take her away she did not know that each hour however story of a sin little spent to his liking was a breathing space to him before the struggle that must commence on his return to that here he felt himself independent as his fellow men there he was a slave fast chained and bound by the weight of those sins from which it was beyond the power of either god or man to loose him now he felt as a criminal who with sentence of death upon him is permitted to wander for a brief season he wills or as a boy who playing forgets the lesson that will stare him in the face when to morrow he returns unwillingly to school and though he felt and knew a little from him for while sure of his love the touch of she had discovered in his character had sunk him in her estimation and it was less as than judge that her clear eyes now and again met his yet he would not hurry himself to please her and she must go hungry for a sight of her for he knew that if he once took her over to see them it would be beyond his power to persuade her back again to the white house but when the had been about ten days there it happened one morning for some reason inscrutable to middle aged minds that two young people chose to get up very early though naturally the woman was first in the field she had even time to wash her face in the dew before she chanced upon the humble cause of the of that fatal day � the ex story of 