"I didn't mean you to dress yourself and come downstairs," his father was saying ungraciously.
"My dear, I should have come down to tea in any case, and I was anxious to hear the result of your conversation with Mr. Astill."
"You can guess, can't you?" said the husband.
Mark had heard his father speak angrily before; but he had never heard his voice sound like a growl. He shrank farther back in affright behind the curtains.
"You're going to give way to the Bishop?" the wife asked gently.
"Ah, you've guessed, have you? You've guessed by my manner? You've realized, I hope, what this resolution has cost me and what it's going to cost me in the future. I'm a coward. I'm a traitor. _Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice._ A coward and a traitor."
"To you," the husband scoffed. "I should hope not to you, considering that it is on your account I am surrendering. Do you suppose that if I were free, as to serve God I ought to be free, do you suppose then that I should give up my principles like this? Never! But because I'm a married priest, because I've a wife and family to support, my hands are tied. Oh, yes, Astill was very tactful. He kept insisting on my duty to the parish; but did he once fail to rub in the position in which I should find myself if I did resign? No bishop would license me; I should be inhibited in every diocese--in other words I should starve. The beliefs I hold most dear, the beliefs I've fought for all these years surrendered for bread and butter! _Woman, what have I to do with thee?_ Our Blessed Lord could speak thus even to His Blessed Mother. But I! _He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me._"
The Missioner threw himself into his worn armchair and stared into the unlighted grate. His wife came behind him and laid a white hand upon his forehead; but her touch seemed to madden him, and he sprang away from her.
"No more of that," he cried. "If I was weak when I married you I will never be weak again. You have your child. Let that be enough for your tenderness. I want none of it myself. Do you hear? I wish to devote myself henceforth to my parish. My parish! The parish of a coward and a traitor."