d and Mrs. Langdon ushered herself in.

"Don't blame your boy, Mr. Blacklock," cried she gaily, exasperatingly
confident that I was as delighted with her as she was with herself. "I told
him you were expecting me and didn't give him a chance to stop me."

I assumed she had come to give me wholly undeserved thanks for revenging
her upon her recreant husband. I tried to look civil and courteous, but I
felt that my face was darkening--her very presence forced forward things I
had been keeping in the far background of my mind, "How can I be of service
to you, Madam?" said I.

"I bring you good news," she replied--and I noted that she no longer looked
haggard and wretched, that her beauty was once more smiling with a certain
girlishness, like a young widow's when she finds her consolation. "Mowbray
and I have made it up," she explained.

I simply listened, probably looking as grim as I felt.

"I knew you would be interested," she went on. "Indeed, it means almost as
much to you as to me. It brings peace to _two_ families."

Still I did not relax.

"And so," she continued, a little uneasy, "I came to you immediately."

I continued to listen, as if I were waiting for her to finish and depart.

"If you want, I'll go to Anita." Natural feminine tact would have saved her
from this rawness; but, convinced that she was a "great lady" by the
flattery of servants and shopkeepers and sensational newspapers and social
climbers, she had discarded tact as worthy only of the lowly and of the
aspiring before they "arrive."

"You are too kind," said I. "Mrs. Blacklock and I feel competent to take
care of our own affairs."

"Please, Mr. Blacklock," she said, realizing that she had blundered, "don't
take my directness the wrong way. Life is too short for pose and pretense
about the few things that really matter. Why shouldn't we be frank with
each other?"

"I trust you will excuse me," said I, moving toward the door--I had not
seated myself when she did. "I think I have made it clear that we have
nothing to discuss."

"You have the reputation of being generous and too big for hatred. That is
why I have come to you," said she, her expression confirming my suspicion
of the real and only reason for her visit. "Mowbray and I are completely
reconciled--_completely_, you understand. And I want you to be
generous, and not keep on with this attack. I am involved even more than
he. He has used up his fortune in defending mine. Now, you a