she will regard as a kindness, if the lady
chosen should prove to be one of those rare beings who carry comfort in
their looks without obtruding their services or displaying the extent of
their interest. You know there are some situations in which the presence
of a stranger may be more grateful than that of a friend. Apparently, my
wife feels herself so placed now."

Here his eyes again read my face, an ordeal out of which I came
triumphant; the satisfaction he evinced rightly indicated his mind.

"Will you accept the position?" he asked. "We have one little child. You
will have no charge of her save as you may wish to make use of her in
reaching the mother."

The hint conveyed in the last phrase gave me courage to say:

"You wish me to reach her?"

"With comfort," said he.

"And if in doing so I learn her trouble?"

"You will win my eternal gratitude by telling it to one who would give
ten years of his life to assuage it."

My head rose. I began to feel that my next step must strike solid
ground.

"In other words to be quite honest--you wish me to learn her trouble if
I can."

"I believe you can be trusted to do so."

"And then to reveal it to you?"

"If your sense of duty permits,--which I think it will."

I might have uttered in reply, "A spy's duty?" but the high-mindedness
of his look forbade. Whatever humiliation his wishes put upon me, there
could be no question of the uprightness of his motives regarding his
wife.

I ventured one more question.

"How far shall I feel myself at liberty to go in this attempt?"

"As far as your judgment approves and circumstances seem to warrant. I
know that you will come upon nothing dishonorable to her, or detrimental
to our relations as husband and wife, in this secret which is destroying
our happiness. Her affection for me is undoubted, but something--God
knows what--has laid waste her life. To find and annihilate that
something is my first and foremost duty. It does not fit well with those
other duties pressing upon me from the political field, does it? That is
why I have called in help. That is why I have called you in."

The emphasis was delicately but sincerely given. It struck my heart and
entered it. Perhaps he had calculated upon this. If so, it was because
he knew that a woman like myself works better when her feelings are
roused.

Answering with a smile, I waited patiently while he talked terms and
other equally necessary details, then dropping