If now he incurred the chances of an open change in his way of living the end was simply a question of very little time. He must not only declass, he must depatriate himself, for he would not have the means of living even much more economically than he now lived in New York, if he did what a sense of honor, of just responsibility urged him to do with regard to St. John.

What service, indeed, would it be to Mary to declass her? Of what advantage to a poor girl to separate her from her surroundings unless you can secure to her a life certainly better? "It would be well," he said after a while, "if Mary could prepare herself for some occupation by which she might some day get a living if other resources fail.

Previously he had paid his forfeits with the best of good-nature, but his previous forfeits hadn't obliged him to declass himself. They hadn't involved his wife. He hadn't married Anna to drag her down to this. It would stand them in a social pillory, targets for those who had either admired them or envied them.