"She was
shrewd, too. I was not to get anything except a few trinkets. And if we
didn't marry, the money would all go to an old ladies' home.

"So, when she died, I felt as if I ought to do something, you see. It
didn't seem right to let him lose the property, even if he wouldn't
write to his mother. So I had the lawyers try to find him. I thought I
could marry him, and let him get the property, and then--well, I counted
on getting a divorce." She looked up quickly into Ford's face.

"And you know you did promise not to bother me--just to desert me, you
see, so I could get a divorce in a year. I thought I'd come and live
with Kate till the year was up, and then get a divorce, and go back
home to work. My father left me enough to squeak along on, you see, if I
lived in the country. Aunt Ida--that's Frank's mother--paid me a salary
for staying with her and looking after her house and her rents and
things. And then, when you followed me out here, I was furious! Just
simply furious!" She bent her head and set her teeth gently into the
fleshy part of Ford's thumb, and Ford flinched. It happened to be the
sore one.

"Well, but that doesn't explain how you got your loop on me,
girlie--though I sure am glad that you did!"

"Why, don't you see, the time was almost up, just for all the world like
a play. 'Only one day more--and I must save the pa-apers!' So the lawyer
Aunt Ida had for years, heard that Frank was--or had been--at Garbin. I
rushed out here, and heard that there was a Cameron (only they must have
meant Campbell) at Sunset. So I got a license, and the Reverend
Sanderson, and took the evening train down there. At the hotel I asked
for Mr. Cameron, and they sent you in. And you know the rest, you--you
old fraud! How you palmed yourself off on me--"

"I never did! I must have just been in one of my obliging moods; and a
man would have to be mighty rude and unkind not to say yes to a pretty
girl when--"

That is as far as the discussion went, with anything like continuity or
coherence even. Later, however, Josephine did protest somewhat
muffledly: "But, Ford, I married you under the name of Frank Cameron, so
I don't believe--and anyway--I'd like a real wedding--and a ring!"

Mrs. Kate, having been solemnly assured by Rock that Ford was sober and
as nearly in his right mind as a man violently in love can be (Rock made
it plain, by implication at least, that he did not consider that very
near), ventured into the ki