."

"I do not know how strong an argument that would be with Mrs. Endicott,"
said Livingstone with interest.

"She is too shallow a woman to perceive its strength, unless you, as her
lawyer and kinsman, make it plain to her," was the guileless answer.
"Mrs. Curran knows nothing of court procedure, but she is clever enough
to foresee consequences, and her history before her New York fiasco
includes bits of romance from the lives of important people."

Livingstone resisted the inclination to laugh, and then to get angry.

"You think then, that if Mrs. Endicott could be made to see the
possibilities of a desperate trial, the possible exposures of her sins
and the sins of others, that she would not risk it?"

"She has family pride," said Arthur seriously, "and would not care to
expose her own to scorn. I presume you know something about the Endicott
disappearance?"

"Nothing more than the fact, and the failure to find the young man?"

"His wife employed the detective Curran to make the search for Endicott,
and Curran is a Fenian, as interested as myself in such matters. He was
with me in the little enterprise which ended so fatally for Ledwith and
... others." Livingstone was too sore on this subject to smile at the
pause and the word. "Curran told me the details after he had left the
pursuit of Endicott. They are known now to Mrs. Endicott's family in
part. It is understood that she will marry her cousin Quincy Lenox when
she gets a divorce. He was devoted to her before her marriage and is
faithful still, I am told."

Not a sign of feeling in the utterance of these significant words!

"It is not affection, then, which prompts the actions of my client? She
wishes to make sure of the existence or non-existence of her husband
before entering upon this other marriage?"

"Of course I can tell you only what the detective and one other told
us," Arthur said. "When Horace Endicott disappeared, it is said, he took
with him his entire fortune, something over a million, leaving not one
cent to his wife. He had converted his property into cash secretly. Her
anxiety to find him is very properly to get her lawful share in that
property, that is, alimony with her divorce?"

"I see," said Livingstone, and he began to understand the lines and
shadows on this young man's face. "A peculiar, and I suppose thorough,
revenge."

"If the papers are served on me, you understand, then in one fashion or
another Mrs. Endicott shall be b