ident--a bestial fault, a soul-debasing carnal sin,
but still an accident, and hence to be forgiven by God and woman. It was
his duty to interfere; and so, having disciplined the husband, he
essayed the more delicate matter of propitiating the wife. And he
essayed it without a thought of failure.

"I'm afraid she's determined to leave me, and that there's not much
hope," said Babcock, despondently, as he gripped the clergyman's hand in
token of his gratitude.

"Nonsense, my man," asserted Mr. Glynn briskly. "All she needs is an
exhortation from me, and she will take you back."

Selma was opposed to divorce in theory. That is, she had accepted on
trust the traditional prejudice against it as she had accepted
Shakespeare and Boston. But theory stood for nothing in her regard
before the crying needs of her own experience. She had not the least
intention of living with her husband again. No one could oblige her to
do that. In addition, the law offered her a formal escape from his
control and name. Why not avail herself of it? She recollected, besides,
that her husband's church recognized infidelity as a lawful ground of
release from the so-called sacrament of marriage. This had come into her
mind as an additional sanction to her own decision. But it had not
contributed to that decision. Consequently, when she was confronted in
Mrs. Earle's lodgings by the errand of Mr. Glynn, she felt that his
coming was superfluous. Still, she was glad of the opportunity to
measure ideas with him in a thorough interview free from interruption.

Mr. Glynn's confidence was based on his intention to appeal to the ever
womanly quality of pity. He expected to encounter some resistance, for
indisputably here was a woman whose sensibilities had been justly and
severely shocked--a woman of finer tissue than her husband, as he had
noted in other American couples. She was entitled to her day in
court--to a stubborn, righteous respite of indignation. But he expected
to carry the day in the end, amid a rush of

John Holland Rose (1855-1942) was an influential English historian who wrote a famous biography of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and also wrote a history of Europe, entitled The Development of the European Nations. Rose was the basis for C. P. Snows fictional character M. H. L. Gay (see Years of Hope: Cambridge, Colonial Administrator in the South Seas, and Cricket by Philip Snow.)

Robert Grant may refer to: