for me. Listen, Jim! He was a square man, for all he was
devoted to his partner--and you can't blame him for that. I think he
helped me because I was alone; for nothing else, Jim. I swear it! He
helped me from time to time. Maybe he might have wanted to marry me if
he had not been waiting for another woman that he loved, a married woman
that had been deserted years ago by her husband, just as you might have
deserted me if we'd been married that day. He helped her and paid for
her journey here to seek her husband, and set her up in business."

"What are you talking about--what woman?" stammered James Smith, with a
strange presentiment creeping over him.

"A Mrs. Smith. Yes," she said quickly, as he started, "not a sham name
like yours, but really and truly SMITH--that was her husband's name!
I'm not lying, Jim," she went on, evidently mistaking the cause of the
sudden contraction of the man's face. "I didn't invent her nor her name;
there IS such a woman, and Duffy loves her--and HER only, and he never,
NEVER was anything more than a friend to me. I swear it!"

The room seemed to swim around him. She was staring at him, but he could
see in her vacant eyes that she had no conception of his secret, nor
knew the extent of her revelation. Duffy had not dared to tell all! He
burst into a coarse laugh. "What matters Duffy or the silly woman he'd
try to steal away from other men."

"But he didn't try to steal her, and she's only silly because she wants
to be true to her husband while he lives. She told Duffy she'd never
marry him until she saw her husband's dead face. More fool she," she
added bitterly.

"Until she saw her husband's dead face," was all that James Smith heard
of this speech. His wife's faithfulness through years of desertion, her
long waiting and truthfulness, even the bitter commentary of the equally
injured woman before him, were to him as nothing to what that single
sentence conjured up. He laughed again, but this time strangely and
vacantly. "Enough of this Duffy and his intrusion in my affairs until
I'm able to settle my account with him. Come," he added brusquely, "if
we are going to cut out of this at once I've got much to do. Come here
again to-morrow, early. This Duffy--does he live here?"

"No. In Marysville."

"Good! Come early to-morrow."

As she seemed to hesitate, he opened a drawer of his table and took out
a handful of gold, and handed it to her. She glanced at it for a moment
with a st