h," she answered promptly.

"Oh!" said he. "And, in case of necessity, how should we prove it?"

"By my wedding certificate," she told him calmly.

His astonishment increased.

"Then you were actually married, over a month ago?"

"I have the certificate. Isn't that sufficient?" she replied evasively.

"Well--I suppose it is--for this sort of an arrangement," he agreed.
"Of course some man's name must appear in the document. I should be
obliged, I presume, to adopt his name as part of the arrangement?"

"Certainly," she said. "I told you I came into your office because
your name is Jerold."

"Exactly," he mused. "The name I'd assume is Jerold Fairfax?"

She nodded, watching him keenly.

"It's a good enough name," said Garrison.

He paced up and down the floor in silence a number of times. Mrs.
Fairfax watched him in apparent calm.

"This is a great temptation," he admitted. "I should like to earn the
fee you have mentioned, Miss Booth--Mrs. Fairfax, but----"

He halted.

"Well?"

"I don't exactly like the look of it, to be frank," he confessed. "I
don't know you, and you don't know me. I am not informed whether you
are really married or not. If you are, and the man---- You have no
desire to enlighten me on these matters. Can you tell me why you wish
to pretend that I am your husband?"

"I do not wish to discuss that aspect of the arrangement at present,"
she said. "It is purely a business proposition that should last no
more than a month or two at most, and then terminate forever. I would
prefer to have you remain out of town as much as possible."

"A great many haphazard deductions present themselves to my mind," he
said, "but all are doubtless inaccurate. I have no morbid curiosity
concerning your affairs, but this thing would involve me almost as much
as yourself, by its very nature."

His brows were knitted in indecision.

There was silence again between them. His visitor presently said:

"If I could offer you more than the five hundred dollars, I would
gladly do so."

"Oh, the fee is large enough, for up to date I have had no employment
or even a prospect of work," said Garrison. "I hope you will not be
offended when I say that I have recently become a cautious man."

"I know how strange it appears for me to come here with this
extraordinary request," agreed Mrs. Fairfax. "I hardly know how I have
done so. But there was no one to help me. I hope you will not
consider t