ing it away.

Within the tiny kitchen they sat opposite, a narrow band of warm
spring sunshine creeping in at the open door separating them. The
woman looked out over the broad prairie, her color a trifle higher
than usual, the lids of her eyes a shade nearer together--that was
all. The man crossed his legs and waited, looking so small that he
seemed almost boyish. In the silence, the drone of feeding poultry
came from the back-yard, and the sleepy breathing of the big collie on
the steps sounded plainly through the room.

A minute passed. Neither spoke. Then, with a shade of annoyance, the
man shifted in his chair.

"I thought, perhaps, you'd have something you wished to say. If not,
however--" He paused meaningly.

"You said a moment ago, you wished to speak to _me_."

"As usual, you make everything as difficult as possible." The shade of
annoyance became positive. "Such being the case, we may as well come
to the point. How soon do you contemplate bringing this--this incident
to a close?"

"The answer to that question concerns me alone."

An ordinary man would have laughed; but Asa Arnold was not an ordinary
man--not at this time.

"As your husband, I can't agree with you."

Camilla Maurice took up his words, quickly.

"You mistake. You're the husband of Eleanor Owen. I'm not she."

The man went on calmly, as though there had been no interruption.

"I don't want to be hard on you, Eleanor. I don't think I have been
hard on you. A year has passed, and I've known you were here from the
first day. But this sort of thing can't go on indefinitely; there's a
limit, even to good nature. I ask you again, when are you coming
back?"

The woman looked at her companion, for the first time steadily. Even
she, who knew him so well, felt a shade of wonder at the man who could
adjust all the affairs of his life in the same voice with which he
ordered his dinner. Before, she had always thought this attitude of
his pure affectation. Now she knew better, knew it mirrored the man
himself. He had done this thing. Knowing her whereabouts all the time,
he had allotted her the past year, as an employer would grant a
holiday to an assistant. Now he asked her to return to the old life,
as calmly as one returns in the fall to the city home after an outing!
Only one man in the world could have done that thing, and that man was
before her--her husband by law--Asa Arnold!

The wonder of it all crept into her voice.

"I'm not co