In their earlier married life she would have confidently taken the initiative on all moral questions.

She still believed that she was better fitted for their decision by her Puritan tradition and her New England birth, but once in a great crisis when it seemed a question of their living, she had weakened before it, and he, with no such advantages, had somehow met the issue with courage and conscience.

She could not believe he did so by inspiration, but she had since let him take the brunt of all such issues and the responsibility.

He made no reply, and she said: "I suppose you'll admit now there was always something peculiar in the poor boy's manner to Stoller." He would confess no more than that there ought to have been.

"I don't see how he could stagger through with that load on his conscience.