t it?"

"Most astonishing news!"

"And this is the very Isabel who shattered your equanimity; told you to
shoot up the world and then treated you like a pick-pocket the next time
you met! But as old William said 'Love is not love that alters when it
alteration finds.'"

"Don't jump at conclusions! I was just bragging when I gave you the idea
that there was anything between us. The love's all on my side! She
twitted me about my worthlessness that night in Washington; bade me tear
down the heavens. And it oddly happened that from that hour I have never
been a free man; I have done things I believed myself incapable of
doing."

"You did them rather cheerfully, I must say! But on the whole, nothing
very naughty. And I'll prepare you a little for what I prefer you should
hear from Isabel--I got it from Ruth--you're not quite finished yet with
that pistol shot in the Congdon house. It seems to be echoing round the
world!"

CHAPTER FIVE

I

"In spite of my warnings you continue to follow me!" said Isabel when
they were established in the supper room.

"Are we to have another row? I don't believe I can go through with it."

"No; for rows haven't got us anywhere. And Ruth whispered to me a moment
ago to be very nice to you. While the gentleman on the other side of me
is occupied we might clear up matters a little."

"It's not in my theory of life to explain things; I tried explaining
myself at Portsmouth and again at Bennington but you were singularly
unsympathetic. Please be generous and tell me why you were skipping over
New England, darting through trains and searching hotel registers and
manifesting uneasiness when policemen appeared. You recommended a life
of lawlessness to me but I didn't know you meant to go in for that sort
of thing yourself."

"It occurred to me after the Bennington interview that I might have been
unjust, but I was in a humor to suspect every one. When you said you'd
shot Putney Congdon you frightened me to death. Of course you did
nothing of the kind!"

"This is wonderful chicken salad," he said, hastily. "I beg you to do
it full justice. The people about us mustn't get the idea that we're
discussing homicide. Now, to answer your question, I _had_ shot Mr.
Putney Congdon and in edging away from the scene of my bloodshed I was
guilty of other indiscretions that made me chatter like a maniac when I
saw you. It was such a joke that you should turn up when I was doing
just what yo