t he was softening under her distress, and she changed
her tone.

"Wolf, you know that you can trust me!" she said.

"But I don't know anything about him!" Wolf reminded her. "I know that
he's twice your age----"

"He's thirty-eight!"

"Thirty-eight, then--and I know that he's a loafer--a rich man who has
nothing else to do but run around with women----"

"I want to ask you to stop talking about something of which you are
entirely ignorant!" Norma interrupted, hotly.

"You're the one that's ignorant, Norma," Wolf said, stubbornly, not
looking at her. "You are only a little girl; you think it's great fun to
be married to one man, and flirting with another! What makes me sick is
that a man like Liggett thinks he can get away with it, and you
women----"

"If you say that again, I'll not walk with you!" Norma burst in
furiously.

"Does it ever occur to you," Wolf asked, equally roused, "that you are
my wife?"

"Yes!" Norma answered, breathlessly. "Yes--it does! And why? Because I
was afraid I was beginning to care too much for Chris Liggett--because I
knew he loved me, he had told me so!--and I went to you because I wanted
to be safe--and I told you so, too, Wolf Sheridan, the very day that we
were married! I never lied to you! I told you I loved Chris, that I
always had! And if you'd been _civil_ to me," rushed on Norma, beginning
to feel tears mastering her, "if you'd been _decent_ to me, I would have
gotten over it. I would never have seen him again anyway, after this
week, for I told him this morning that I didn't want to go on meeting
him--that it wasn't fair to you! But no, you don't trust me and you
don't believe me, and consequently--consequently, I don't care what I
do, and I'll make you sorry----"

"Don't talk so wildly, Norma," Wolf warned her, in a tone suddenly quiet
and sad. "Please don't--people will notice you!"

"I don't care if they do!" Norma said. But she glanced about deserted
Eighth Avenue uneasily none the less, and furtively dried her eyes upon
a flimsy little transparent handkerchief that somehow tore at her
husband's heart. "If you had been a little patient, Wolf----" she
pleaded, reproachfully.

"There are times when a man hasn't much use for patience, Norma," Wolf
said, still with strange gentleness. "You _did_ tell me of liking
Liggett--but I thought--I hoped, I guess----!" He paused, and then went
on with sudden fierceness: "He's married, Norma, and you're married--I
wish there