"What do you think they will do--first ?" she whispered.

And again--it went to his heart--the woman's face, fear-drawn, showed as it were beneath the mask with which love and faith and a noble resignation had armed her.

"Do you think they will denounce us at once ?" He shook his head in sheer inability to foresee; and then, seeing that she continued to look anxiously for his answer, that answer which he knew to be of no value, for minute by minute the sense of his helplessness was weighing upon him, "It may be," he muttered.

"God knows.

When Grio is gone we will talk about it." She began, but always with a listening ear and an eye to the open door, to remove from the table the remains of their meal.