to him.

Adelle explained her scheme of treatment for the grave and the grounds
about it, and they walked slowly down the path to the orangery.

"Would you like me to fix it all up as you want it?" the mason asked.

"Would you?"

"All right--I'll start in to-day and you can watch me and see if it's
done right."

"But you wanted to go up to the city," Adelle suggested.

"That don't matter much--there's plenty of time," Clark replied hastily.

And in a few minutes he remarked gruffly, "Say, I don't want you to
think I was goin' up to 'Frisco on a tear."

"I didn't think so!"

She realized then that Clark had not left the place all these ten days
since the fire.

"I'm goin' to cut out the booze, now there's something else for
excitement," he added.

"That's good!"

XLV

Adelle registered at the Eclair Hotel in B---- with her maid. It was the
only hotel that she knew in the city, although when she first crossed
the ornate lobby she remembered with a sick sensation that other visit
with Archie on their scandalously notorious arrival from Europe to take
possession of her fortune. However, Adelle was not one to allow
sentimental impressions to upset her, and signed the register
carefully--"Mrs. Adelle Clark and maid, Bellevue, California." She had
resolved to signify her new life by renouncing her married name here in
the country where she had begun life as Adelle Clark, although her
divorce was not yet even started.

She expected her cousin Tom Clark in a few days. She had thought it best
to precede him and pave the way for him at the Washington Trust Company
by announcing her news to the officers first. A little reflection and
the memory of certain expressions from the trust officers of complacency
in their success in "quieting" the Clark title had convinced her that
this would be the wiser course to pursue. The trust company might find
some objections to undoing all the fine legal work that they had
accomplished in the settlement of the estate.

Adelle was received by the new president, that same Mr. Solomon Smith
who had delivered the trust company's ultimatum to her after her
marriage. Mr. Smith, it seemed, had recently succeeded to the dignity of
President West, who had retired as chairman of the company's board, fat
with honor and profit. President Solomon Smith received Adelle with all
the consideration due to such an old and rich client, whose business
interests were still presumably consi