en like himself since that day he fought Dick.
He must be--"

"But how could he?" Josephine's voice interrupted sharply. "That jug
he's got is full yet."

Ford could imagine Mrs. Kate shaking her head with the wisdom born of
matrimony.

"Don't you suppose he could keep putting in water?" she asked pityingly.
Ford almost choked when he heard that!

"I don't believe he would." Josephine's tone was dubious. "It doesn't
seem to me that a man would do that; he'd think he was just spoiling
what was left. That," she declared with a flash of inspiration, "is what
a woman would do. And a man always does something different!" There was
a pathetic note in the last sentence, which struck Ford oddly.

"Don't think you know men, my dear, until you've been married to one for
eight years or so," said Mrs. Kate patronizingly. "When you've been--"

"Oh, for mercy's sake, do you think they're all alike?" Josephine's
voice was tart and impatient. "I know enough about men to know they're
all different. You can't judge one by another. And I don't believe that
Ford is drinking at all. He's just--"

"Just what?--since you know so well!" Mrs. Kate was growing ironical.

"He's trying not to--and worrying." Her voice lowered until it took love
to hear it. Ford did hear, and his breath came fast. He did not catch
Mrs. Kate's reply; he was not in love with Mrs. Kate, and he was engaged
in letting the words of Josephine sink into his very soul, and in
telling himself over and over that she understood. It seemed to him a
miracle of intuition, that she should sense the fight he was making;
and since he felt that way about it, it was just as well he did not know
that Jim Felton sensed it quite as keenly as Josephine--and with a far
greater understanding of how bitter a fight it was, and for that reason
a deeper sympathy.

"I wish Chester was here!" wailed Mrs. Kate, across the glow of his
exultant thoughts. "I'm afraid to say anything to him myself, he's so
morose. It's a shame, because he's so splendid when he's--himself."

"He's as much himself now as ever he was," Josephine defended hotly.
"When he's drinking he's altogether--"

"You never saw him drunk," Mrs. Kate pointed to the weak spot in
Josephine's defense of him. "Dick says--"

"Oh, do you believe everything Dick says? A week ago you were bitter
against Dick and all enthusiasm for Ford."

"You were flirting with Dick then, and you'd hardly treat Ford decently.
And Ford hadn't