d gave a laugh expressive of disdain and
contempt.

"If you please, which woman?"

William's frown deepened. The one woman was certainly enough, and his
rage was increased by the leer that accompanied the question.

"Oh, I dare say there have been enough of them! I mean the one you took
away from here; I mean Lois Kirkwood."

"Oh, Lois!" He spoke as though surprised that she should be chosen for
particular attention, and his lip curled scornfully. "When a man goes
wrong, Will, he pays for it. Take it from me that that's one gospel
truth that I've proved to my entire satisfaction. It's queer, Will, how
soon a bonfire burns out--the bigger the fire the quicker it goes. I
went plum crazy about that girl. She'd married the one particular man on
earth who was least likely to make her happy. He bored her. And I guess
her baby bored her, too,--she wasn't a domestic animal,--no pussy cat to
sit by the fire and play with the baby and have hubby's slippers
toasting when he came home to supper. And I had time to play with her; I
wasn't so intellectual as Tom, but my nature was a damned sight more
sympathetic. It looked as though we had been made for each other, and I
was fooled into thinking so. And I was bored myself--this silly little
town, with nothing to hold anybody. Lois and I were made for a bigger
world--at least we thought so: and by Jove, it was funny how we fooled
each other--it was altogether too damned funny!"

"I'm glad you take a humorous view of it," replied William coldly. "Not
satisfied with disgracing the family, you come back to rub it in. Where
did you leave the woman? I suppose you've chucked her--the usual way."

Jack threw back his head and laughed.

"Well, I like that! You don't know what I had to put up with! She made
me suffer, I can tell you! I don't believe she'd deny herself that she
made it damned uncomfortable for me. She liked to spend money, for one
thing, and I couldn't make it fast enough; and she wanted to mingle with
the rich and gay, and our story had followed us, and it's funny, Will,
what a lot of old-fashioned, stupid, Thursday-night-prayer-meeting and
the-pastor-in-to-tea morality there is left in this fool world! It cut
Lois up a good deal, being snubbed by people she wanted to stand well
with. It gave me a jolt to find that I wasn't all-sufficient for her
after all; which hurt some when we'd decided we could be happy alone
together in the woods for the rest of our days. It's a lo