The great slow eyes began to fill, and Lovibond's gaze to seek the laces
of his boots.

"It is sorrow enough to me, Mr. Lovibond, that my husband and I have
quarreled and parted, but it will be the worst grief of all if some day
I should have to think that I came into his life to wreck it."

"Don't blame yourself for that, Mrs. Quiggin. It will be his own fault
if he ruins himself."

"You are very good, Mr. Lovi-bond."

"Your husband will never blame you either."

"That will hardly reconcile me to his misfortunes."

["The man's an ass," thought Lovibond.]

"I shall not trouble him much longer with my presence here," Mrs.
Quiggin continued, and Lovibond looked up inquiringly.

"I am going back home soon," she added. "But if before I go some friend
would help me to save my husband from himself----"

Lovibond rose in an instant. "I am at your service, Mrs. Quiggin," he
said briskly. "Have you thought of anything?"

"Yes. They tell me that he is gambling, and that all the cheats of the
island are winning from him."

"Well?"

The pale face turned very red, and quivered visibly about the lips.

"I have heard him say, when he has spoken of you, Mr. Lovibond,
that--that--but will you forgive what I am going to tell you?"

"Anything," said Lovibond.

"That out on the coast _you_ could win from anybody. I remembered this
when they told me that he was gambling, and I thought if you would play
against my husband--for _me_------"

"I see what you mean, Mrs. Quiggin," said Lovibond.

"I don't want the money, though he was so cruel as to say I had only
married him for sake of it. But you could put it back into Dumbell's
Bank day by day as you got it."

"In whose name?" said Lovibond.

The great eyes opened very wide. "His, surely," she said falteringly.

Lovibond saw the folly of that thought, but he also recognized its
tenderness.

"Very well," he said; "I'll do my best."

"Will it be wrong to deceive him, Mr. Lovibond?"

"It will be mercy itself, Mrs. Quiggin."

"To be sure, it is only to save him from ruin. But you will not believe
that I am thinking of myself, Mr. Lovibond?"

"Trust me for that, Mrs. Quiggin."

"And when the wild fit is over, and my husband hears of what has been
done, you will be careful not to let him know that it was I who thought
of it?"

"You shall tell him yourself, Mrs. Quiggin."

"Ah! that can never, never be," she said, with a sigh. And then she
murmured softly, "I do