I
think that I'll teach you a lesson. I have a fancy to save you--in spite
of yourself!" And, leaving Hamilton to ponder these astounding words,
she went forth from the room.

CHAPTER XIII

The week that followed was to Cicily the most strenuous and the most
exciting that she had ever experienced in the brief span of her years.
She steadfastly maintained her pose as a woman who had renounced her
husband; yet, she remained in that husband's house, with a sublime
disregard for the inconsistency of her conduct. She studiously avoided
any discussion, of the status she had established. What her future
course would be was left wholly to conjecture. She presided at the table
with inimitable grace and self-possession, taking care to treat her
husband with every consideration, but always with a trace of formality
that was significant of the changed relation. Hamilton, on his part, was
inclined to regard his wife's dramatic renunciation of him as a passing
whim, which it were wiser to ignore until such time as it should have
worn itself out. In the meantime, he was so much absorbed by the
struggle over his business difficulties that, he had little time or
disposition to make researches into feminine psychology, even that of
his wife. He had an optimistic theory that, in the end, his domestic
troubles would adjust themselves by some process of natural evolution.
He was confident, too, that his assertion of mastery must eventually be
accepted by his wife. So, he smiled pleasantly on Cicily, when he was
not too busy to notice her presence, and betimes he felt the little
packet that he carried in the inner pocket of his waistcoat, and was
fondly content, wondering when the dear girl would again slip the bond
of servitude willingly on the finger whence she had removed it with such
magnificent disdain.

It was that wedding-ring, thus cherished by Hamilton, which caused the
wife more concern than aught else in her domestic entanglement. She had
regarded the symbol as something splendidly sacred, and she now bitterly
regretted the impulse that had led her to discard it so needlessly.
Indeed, the very night on which she defied her husband, she had crept
down to the library when all the house was quiet, and had there made
sure that it was not still lying disregarded on the table where she had
cast it down in resentment. Now, she hoped and believed that her husband
had locked it away in some drawer where at least it would be saf