on his valise, went
on,--

"It is sixteen year ago as I married Mrs. McClosky in the State of
Missouri. She let on, at the time, to be a widder,--a widder with one
child. When I say let on, I mean to imply that I subsekently found out
that she was not a widder, nor a wife; and the father of the child was,
so to speak, onbeknowst. Thet child was Jinny--my gal."

With his eyes on his valise, and quietly ignoring the wholly-crimsoned
face and swiftly-darkening brow of his host, he continued,--

"Many little things sorter tended to make our home in Missouri
onpleasant. A disposition to smash furniture, and heave knives around;
an inclination to howl when drunk, and that frequent; a habitooal use of
vulgar language, and a tendency to cuss the casooal visitor,--seemed to
pint," added Mr. McClosky with submissive hesitation "that--she--was--so
to speak--quite onsuited to the marriage relation in its holiest
aspeck."

"Damnation! Why didn't"--burst out John Ashe, erect and furious.

"At the end of two year," continued Mr. McClosky, still intent on the
valise, "I allowed I'd get a diworce. Et about thet time, however,
Providence sends a circus into thet town, and a feller ez rode three
horses to onct. Hevin' allez a taste for athletic sports, she left town
with this feller, leavin' me and Jinny behind. I sent word to her, thet,
if she would give Jinny to me, we'd call it quits. And she did."

"Tell me," gasped Ashe, "did you ask your daughter to keep this from me?
or did she do it of her own accord?"

"She doesn't know it," said Mr. McClosky. "She thinks I'm her father,
and that her mother's dead."

"Then, sir, this is your"--

"I don't know," said Mr. McClosky slowly, "ez I've asked any one to
marry my Jinny. I don't know ez I've persood that ez a biziness, or even
taken it up as a healthful recreation."

John Ashe paced the room furiously. Mr. McClosky's eyes left the
valise, and followed him curiously. "Where is this woman?" demanded Ashe
suddenly. McClosky's eyes sought the valise again.

"She went to Kansas; from Kansas she went into Texas; from Texas she
eventooally came to Californy. Being here, I've purvided her with money,
when her business was slack, through a friend."

John Ashe groaned. "She's gettin' rather old and shaky for hosses, and
now does the tight-rope business and flying trapeze. Never hevin' seen
her perform," continued Mr. McClosky with conscientious caution, "I
can't say how she gets on. O