your return. He will twist the laws of divorce to his favour; he will
marry again! What then? He spares you what remains of your fortune; he
spares your life. Remain here,--cross his schemes, and-- No, no; come to
England,--safer anywhere than here!"

As he spoke, great changes had passed over Lucretia's countenance. At
first it was the flash of conviction, then the stunned shock of horror;
now she rose, rose to her full height, and there was a livid and deadly
light in her eyes,--the light of conscious courage and power and revenge.
"Fool," she muttered, "with all his craft! Fool, fool! As if, in the
war of household perfidy, the woman did not always conquer! Man's only
chance is to be mailed in honour."

"But," said Gabriel, overhearing her, "but you do not remember what it
is. There is nothing you can see and guard against. It is not like an
enemy face to face; it is death in the food, in the air, in the touch.
You stretch out your arms in the dark, you feel nothing, and you die!
Oh, do not fancy that I have not thought well (for I am almost a man now)
if there were no means to resist,--there are none! As well make head
against the plague,--it is in the atmosphere. Come to England, and
return. Live poorly, if you must, but live--but live!"

"Return to England poor and despised, and bound still to him, or a
disgraced and divorced wife,--disgraced by the low-born dependant on my
kinsman's house,--and fawn perhaps upon my sister and her husband for
bread! Never! I am at my post, and I will not fly."

"Brave, brave!" said the boy, clapping his hands, and sincerely moved by
a daring superior to his own; "I wish I could help you!"