wn.

She dropped the pearls with a cry of terror. Her face went white, and
she gasped for breath. The jewel-case in her hand she had seen before.
It had belonged to the old gentleman who lived in the front room on the
first floor of her building in the days when it was a boarding house.
The wife he had idolized was long ago dead. This string of pearls from
her neck the old man had worshiped for years. The stanza from "The
Rosary" he had scrawled in the lining one day in Mary's presence. He had
moved uptown with the landlady. Two months ago a burglar had entered his
room, robbed and shot him.

"It's impossible--impossible!" she gasped. "Oh, dear God--it's
impossible! Of course the burglar pawned them, and Jim bought them
without knowing. Of course! My nerves are on edge today--how silly of
me----"

Jim's footsteps suddenly sounded on the porch, and she thrust the
jewel-case back into the bag with desperate effort to pull herself
together.

CHAPTER XVI. THE AWAKENING

For a moment she felt the foundations of the moral and physical world
sinking beneath her feet. Dizziness swept her senses. She gripped
the table, leaning heavily against it, her eye watching the door with
feverish terror for Jim's appearance.

She had never fainted in her life. It was absurd, but the room was
swimming now in a dim blur. Again she gripped the table and set her
teeth. She simply would not give up. Why should she leap to the worst
possible explanation of the jewels? The hatred of old Ella for Jim and
the furious antagonism of Jane Anderson had poisoned her mind, after
all. It was infamous that she could suspect her husband of crime merely
because two silly women didn't like him.

He could explain the jewels. He, of course, asked no questions of the
pawn-broker. They were probably sold at auction and he bought them.

It seemed an eternity from the time Jim's foot step echoed on the little
porch until he pushed the door open and hastily entered, his arms piled
with lap-robes, coats and the dress-suit case in his hand.

He walked with quick, firm step, threw the coats and robes on the couch
and placed the suit-case at its head. He hadn't turned toward her and
his face was still in profile while he removed the gloves from his
pockets, threw them on the robes, and drew the scarlet woolen neckpiece
from his throat.

She was studying him now with new terror-stricken eyes. Never had she
seen his jaw look so big and brutal. Never had