hind,--fairly or unfairly, I
can't say. She gets tired waiting, after the usual style, and elopes
with somebody else. The Western Penelope isn't built for waiting. But
she seems to have converted some of his property into cash when she
skipped from St. Louis, and that's where his chief concern comes in.
That's what he wanted to see me for; that's why he inveigled me into
that infernal pantry of his one day to show me a plan of his property,
as if that was any good."

He paused disgustedly. We all felt, I think, that Tom was some kind of
an impostor, claiming the sympathies of the Club on false pretenses.
Nevertheless, the Quartermaster said, "Then you didn't do anything for
him--give him any advice, eh?"

"No; for the property's as much hers as his, and he hasn't got a
divorce; and, as it's doubtful whether he didn't desert her first, he
can't get one. He was surprised," he added, with a grim smile, "when I
told him that he was obliged to support her, and was even liable for
her debts. But people who are always talking of invoking the law know
nothing about it." We were surprised too, although Manners was always
convincing us, in some cheerful but discomposing way, that we were all
daily and hourly, in our simplest acts, making ourself responsible
for all sorts of liabilities and actions, and even generally preparing
ourselves for arrest and imprisonment. The Quartermaster continued
lazily:--

"Then you didn't give him any points about shooting?"

"No; he doesn't even know the man she went off with. It was eighteen
months ago, and I don't believe he'd even know her again if he met
her. But, if he isn't much of a client, we shall miss him to-night as
a waiter, for the place is getting full, and there are not enough to
serve."

The restaurant was, indeed, unusually crowded that evening; the more so
that, the private rooms above being early occupied, some dinner parties
and exclusive couples had been obliged to content themselves with the
public dining saloon. A small table nearest us, usually left vacant to
insure a certain seclusion to the Club, was arranged, with a deprecatory
apology from the proprietor, for one of those couples, a man and
woman. The man was a well-known speculator,--cool, yet reckless and
pleasure-loving; the woman, good-looking, picturesquely attractive,
self-conscious, and self-possessed. Our propinquity was evidently
neither novel nor discomposing. As she settled her skirts in her place,
her