o say to each other,"
he said deliberately, "had better not be overheard. At least what I have
got to say to you."

CHAPTER V

Demorest, now as self-possessed as his adversary, haughtily waved his
hand towards the path. They walked on in silence, without even looking
at each other, until they reached a small summer-house that stood in the
angle of the wall. Demorest entered. "We cannot be heard here," he said
curtly.

"And we can see what is going on. Good," said Blandford, coolly
following him. The summer-house contained a bench and a table. Blandford
seated himself on the bench. Demorest remained standing beside the
table. There was a moment's silence.

"I came here with no desire to see you or avoid you," said Blandford,
with cold indifference. "A few weeks ago I might perhaps have avoided
you, for your own sake. But since then I have learned that among the
many things I owe to--to your wife is the fact that five years ago she
secretly DIVORCED ME, and that consequently my living presence could
neither be a danger nor a menace to you. I see," he added, dryly, with
a quick glance at Demorest's horror-stricken face, "that I was also told
the truth when they said you were as ignorant of the divorce as I was."

He stopped, half in pity of his adversary's shame, half in surprise of
his own calmness. Five years before, in the tumultuous consciousness of
his wrongs, he would have scarcely trusted himself face to face with
the cooler and more self-controlled Demorest. He wondered at and partly
admired his own coolness now, in the presence of his enemy's confusion.

"As your mind is at rest on that point," he continued, sarcastically,
"I don't suppose you care to know what became of ME when I left North
Liberty. But as it happens to have something to do with my being here
to-night, and is a part of my business with you, you'll have to listen
to it. Sit down! Very well, then--stand up! It's your own house."

His half cynical, wholly contemptuous ignoring of the real issue between
them was more crushing to Demorest than the keenest reproach or most
tragic outburst. He did not lift his eyes as Blandford resumed in a dry,
business-like way:

"When I came across the plains to California, I fell in with a man about
my own age--an emigrant also. I suppose I looked and acted like a crazy
fool through all the journey, for he satisfied himself that I had some
secret reason for leaving the States, and suspected that I w