He did not believe she was seeking a divorce! It was all another of Bennie D.'s lies! But suppose she was seeking it.

Or suppose--for he knew the persuasive power of that glib tongue only too well--suppose her brother-in-law should persuade her to do it.

Should he sit still--in seclusion, as his late adviser had counseled--and let this irrevocable and final move be made?
After a divorce--Seth's idea of divorces were vague and Puritanical--there would be no hope.

He and Emeline could never come together after that.

And he must give her up and all his hopes of happiness, all that he had dreamed of late, would be but dreams, never realities.