Father Benwell took a chair by Romayne's side. "It has been my hard duty to grieve and humiliate you," he said. "Do you bear me no ill will?" He held out his hand. Romayne took it -- as an act of justice, if not as an act of gratitude. "Can I be of any use in advising you?" Father Benwell asked. "Who can advise a man in my position?" Romayne bitterly rejoined. "I can at least suggest that you should take time to think over your position." "Time? take time? You talk as if my situation was endurable." "Everything is endurable, Romayne!" "It may be so to you, Father Benwell. Did you part with your humanity when you put on the black robe of the priest?" "I parted, my son, with those weaknesses of our humanity on which women practice. You talk of your position. I will put it before you at its worst."

Author Biography

William Wilkie Collins (1824 - 1889) was an English novelist, playwright and short story writer. His best-known works are The Woman in White (1859), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866) and The Moonstone (1868). The last is considered the first modern English detective novel. Born into the family of painter William Collins in London, he lived with his family in Italy and France as a child and learned French and Italian. After his first novel, Antonina, was published in 1850, he met Charles Dickens, who became a close friend, mentor and collaborator. Some of Collins's works were first published in Dickens' journals All the Year Round and Household Words and the two collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins was critical of the institution of marriage and never married; he split his time between Caroline Graves, except for a two-year separation, and his common-law wife Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children.