cold, stereotyped fashion,
calling his attention to the broken-hearted wife, the sick man who lay
upstairs and who had befriended him, and of the social ostracism that
was to result should he take such a drastic step.

She felt it indelicate to mention Mary but she did say there were
"other vicious deceits of which we are well aware, my young man,"
warning him that in years to come old age would bring nothing but
remorse and terror, asking him what he would be forced to think when
his marriage was recalled?

"My marriage?" Steve answered, too pleasantly to be safe. "I dare say
in time I'll come to realize it is always the open season for
salamanders." Which left Aunt Belle with the wild thought that she
must accompany Beatrice to Reno to sit out in the sagebrush for the
best part of a year.

Steve found his wife in her dressing room; she had waited as eagerly
for his coming as she had done during the first days of their
engagement. She, too, during a sleepless night had resolved that the
only solution was a divorce, but she was going to have just as gay a
time out of the event as was possible, which included making Steve as
wretched as could be. Even with the rumours concerning Mary she
believed, in the conceited fashion of all persons so cowardly that
they merely consent to be loved, that Steve still adored her and that
she was dealing with the deluded man of a few years ago.

She wore a sapphire-coloured neglige with slippers to match, and lay
in her chaise-longue gondola, her prayer books with their silver
covers and a new Pom as touching details to the farewell tableau. Then
Steve was permitted to come into the room.

She gazed at him in a sorrowful, forgiving fashion, quite enjoying the
situation. Then she held out her hand, wondering if he would kiss it;
but he took it as meaning that he might sit down or try to sit down on
a perilous little hassock which he had always named the Rocky Road to
Dublin despite its Florentine appearance.

"I hope you agree with me," he began, in businesslike fashion as he
noted the prayer books, the untouched breakfast tray, the snapping
Pom, which never tolerated his presence without protest. "I am going
to see your father, out of courtesy, and explain more in detail how
things stand. It won't interest you so I sha'n't bore you. I have
enough money and securities to cover the loss of any of his money. I
shall apply for a position in another city. I am reasonably sure of
obta