for his ostracism--a condition that
his own misconduct had brought upon him. Finally, after twelve months
of this, one morning he left a note saying he no longer would allow her
to be a drag upon him, and sailed for Europe.

They learned that, in Paris, he had returned to that life which before
his marriage, even in that easy-going city, had made him notorious.
"And Frances," continued Lee's correspondent, "has left Boston, and now
lives in New York. She wouldn't let any of us help her, nor even know
where she is. The last we heard of her she was in charge of the
complaint department of a millinery shop, for which work she was
receiving about the same wages I give my cook."

Lee did not stop to wonder why the same woman, who to one man was a
"drag," was to another, even though separated from her by half the
world, a joy and a blessing. Instead, he promptly wrote his lawyers to
find Mrs. Stedman, and, in such a way as to keep her ignorant of their
good offices, see that she obtained a position more congenial than her
present one, and one that would pay her as much as, without arousing
her suspicions, they found it possible to give.

Three months had passed, and this letter had not been answered, when in
Manila, where he had been ordered to make a report, he heard of her
again. One evening, when the band played on the Luneta, he met a newly
married couple who had known him in Agawamsett. They now were on a
ninety-day cruise around the world. Close friends of Frances Gardner,
they remembered him as one of her many devotees and at once spoke of
her.

"That blackguard she married," the bridegroom told him, "was killed
three months ago racing with another car from Versailles back to Paris
after a dinner at which, it seems, all present drank 'burgundy out of
the fingerbowls.' Coming down that steep hill into Saint Cloud, the
cars collided, and Stedman and a woman, whose husband thought she was
somewhere else, were killed. He couldn't even die without making a
scandal of it."

"But the worst," added the bride, "is that, in spite of the way the
little beast treated her, I believe Frances still cares for him, and
always will. That's the worst of it, isn't it?" she demanded.

In words, Lee did not answer, but in his heart he agreed that was much
the worst of it. The fact that Frances was free filled him with hope;
but that she still cared for the man she had married, and would
continue to think only of him, made