A saint whose perfect soul With perfect love for goal
Faith hardly might control,
Creeds might not harden.
—Swinburne.
When Legros was alone once more with his daughter he asked for a fuller explanation.
 
"I wish, my jewel, that you had not interfered," he said reproachfully, "when first I desired to kick those rascals out of doors. My first instinct was right, you see."
 
"Nay, but, Father dear," she said gently, "I am glad that you yielded to me in this. If we had not listened to what these men said, we should know nothing of the villainies which they are concocting, and could not warn those whom they attack."
 
"Methinks that were no concern of ours," retorted her father gruffly.
 
"They are proposing to bring false accusations of treason against Lord Stowmaries," urged Rose Marie, almost reproachfully.
 
"And what is that to us, my child?"
 
"Lord Stowmaries is my husband, Father; to-morrow we set out on a journey in order to ask him to render me justice—and this we do on Monseigneur's advice."
 
"There is no obligation on our part to undertake the journey."
 
"There was none yesterday, Father dear, but there is to-day."
 
[312]"To-day? Why?"
 
"Because to-day we know that Lord Stowmaries—my husband—is in danger of his life, and that we can, mayhap, give him timely warning."
 
"Lord Stowmaries is so little thy husband, child, that even to-day when thou thinkest of saving him from these perjurers, he goes about carrying in the pocket of his coat the dispensation to repudiate thee, which he hath obtained from His Holiness by a misrepresentation of facts."
 
Even as he spoke these harsh words—and he spoke them roughly, too—the good tailor took his daughter's hand tenderly in his, and stroked it, as if to mitigate by this loving touch the cruelty of the words. But the child who had been once so yielding and submissive was now an obstinate woman.
 
"All the more reason, Father dear,&............