nt in careless
talk an hour or two that might have been better employed, she was
willing to make up for his neglect by extra work in the office at night.
He was doing well and she began to be hopeful.

One evening, however, when there were goods to be entered and bills
written out, he went home for supper and did not come back. Sadie
stopped in the office long after the clerk had gone, but when she put
down her pen the stove was out and she was surprised to find how late it
was. She felt tired and annoyed, for she had been busily occupied since
morning, and suspected that Bob was telling amusing stories while
she did his work. Then in shutting up the store she forgot her rubber
over-shoes, and the sidewalk was plastered with sticky mud. She wore
rather expensive slippers and thought they would be spoiled.

Charnock was not about when she entered the hotel, and the guests seemed
to have gone to bed. The light was out in the office, and the big
lounge room, where lumps of half-dry mud lay upon the board floor, was
unoccupied. The bell-boy, who was using a brush amidst a cloud of
dust, said he did not think the boss had gone upstairs, and with
sudden suspicion Sadie entered a dark passage that led to a room where
commercial travelers showed their goods. She opened the door and stopped
just inside, her head tilted back and an angry sparkle in her eyes.

The room was very hot and smelt of liquor, tobacco, and kerosene;
the lamp had been turned too high and its cracked chimney was black.
Charnock and three others sat round a table on which stood a bottle
and four glasses. One of the glasses had upset and there was a pool,
bordered by soaked cigar-ash, on the boards. The men were playing cards,
and a pile of paper money indicated that the stakes were high.
Sadie knew them all and deeply distrusted one, whom she suspected of
practising on her husband's weaknesses; she disliked another, and the
third did not count. She looked up rather awkwardly, and she saw that
Charnock had taken too much liquor.

"Good evening, boys," she said. "I want to lock the doors, and guess you
don't know how late it is."

Wilkinson, the man she distrusted, took out his watch. He had a horse
ranch some distance off, and the farmers called him a sport. As a matter
of fact, he was a successful petty gambler, but generally lost his
winnings by speculating in real-estate and wheat.

"It's surely late, Mrs. Charnock," he agreed. "Still, I dare say you