s it on her hand, follows her
to her room, and gets it back, after having found out all she wanted to
know, but without telling anything herself. Then, instead of coming to
me after the election, she sent me a note to let me know that she had
found me out, and off she went to Bermuda with her father."

"I see," said Leigh coldly, "but I don't see yet where I come in."

"I want your advice, as a friend," Emmet returned. He was still
unsuspicious of anything amiss in his auditor, and went on to tell of
the adventure that followed his good resolutions: of his race on the
avenue; of his unexpected meeting with Lena and his sudden fall; of the
encounter at the inn. Something of the eloquence which Leigh had heard
from him on the platform glowed in the apologetic passages of his
narrative. If the astronomer had never known and loved Felicity
himself, he could not have failed to be impressed by the man's evident
struggle; he would have appreciated his repentance; he would have
blamed his wife for her conduct, and would have realised that her need
of sympathy was less than Lena's in proportion as her love was less, in
proportion as her resources and her pride were greater. As it was, he
would have been more than human had he taken such a comprehensive view
of the tragedy, and his judgment went bitterly against the man who had
dared to esteem lightly the gift which he felt he would have given his
all to possess.

"Now," Emmet said, in conclusion, "you 're a friend of mine and a
friend of my wife's, and I thought--perhaps"--

"You want me to be a go-between?" Leigh demanded. "You want me to help
you win her back?"

"That's what I was thinking of," the mayor replied. "Tell her I mean
to do the right thing, that I meant to all along. Somehow I think she
'll understand better if you tell her. You stand halfway between us,
and can see both points of view. Now that I 'm mayor and established
in life, the bishop need n't feel that he 'd be disgraced by the
marriage. I can hold my own with the old gentleman now. She 's my
wife, and I want her to acknowledge it. The account is pretty even as
things stand, I take it."

Leigh smiled scornfully at Emmet's claim of social equality with the
bishop, based upon his position as mayor. Not that office, but only
the fact that he was Felicity's husband, would give him an entrance
into the bishop's house, and the claim seemed to him boastful and
vulgar. He rose abruptly to his