he other man.

"You see, Grid,"--his voice unconsciously lowered,--"she played me that
trick once before--years ago! It was a regular bit of bad luck, the sort
of thing that only seems to happen to me; other men escape. A woman came
to our house,--we were living in London then,--an old friend of mine
with whom I'd stupidly mixed up again; she brought a child with her, a
squalling brat two or three months older than Jasper--Of course the
child had nothing to do with me, but she said he had, and Peggy believed
her!" he looked for sympathy to the silent man opposite to whom he was
now sitting.

"Did you ever hear of this before?" he asked suspiciously, "did Peggy
ever tell you about it?"

"No," said Vanderlyn. "This is the first time I have heard anything of
it. How long did she stay away?" he forced himself to add, loathing
himself the while: "Did she disappear like this--I mean, as she has done
this time?"

"Well, not exactly," said Pargeter reluctantly, "for one thing she took
Jasper and his nurse with her, but not her maid. They went off to her
aunt,--the aunt who brought her up, you know,--but for two days I hadn't
a notion where she was! Then one of her brothers came to see me. It was
all made as damned unpleasant for me as possible, but they were of
course determined that she should come back to me, and so she did--after
about a week. But she was never nice to me again," he added, moodily,
"not that she ever was really nice to me before we married. It was the
aunt who hunted me----"

"Is there any special reason why Peggy should have thought of going away
like that--now?" asked Vanderlyn in a strained voice.

"No," exclaimed Pargeter, "of course there isn't! I've always been nice
to her, as you know well, Grid,--much nicer, I mean, than most men would
have been to a wife who was so--so--" he sought intently for a word, "so
superior and--and unsympathetic. But lately I have been specially nice
to her, for my sister, Sophy, you know, had written me a long screed,--I
didn't bother to read it right through, making out that Peggy's heart
was weak, and that I ought to be very careful about her. The very day I
got the letter I went out and bought her that grey Limousine Lady Prynne
was so keen I should take off her hands! Peggy always had everything she
wanted," he repeated; "I didn't have a penny with her, but I've never
grudged her anything. In fact I should be pleased if she spent more on
her clothes than she see