"
"Hush!" she protested, as if I had blasphemed. "You must not speak of
him like that. He _is_ a gentleman--as true and loyal as you are
yourself. And he is everything to me."
But these assurances were only what I had expected from Ideala, and in
no way altered my opinion of Mr. Lorrimer. I knew Ideala's peculiar
conscience well. She might do what all the world would consider wrong
on occasion; but she would never do so until she had persuaded herself
that wrong was right--for _her_ at all events.
"He may be everything to you, but he has lowered you, Ideala," I
resumed, thinking it best not to spare her.
"I was degraded when I met him."
"Circumstances cannot degrade us until they make us act unworthily," I
rejoined.
"Oh, no, he has not lowered me," she persisted; "quite the contrary. I
have only begun to know the difference between right and wrong since I
met him, and to understand how absolutely necessary for our happiness
is right-doing, even in the veriest trifle. And there is one thing that
I must always be grateful to him for--I can pray now. But I belied
myself to him nevertheless.
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