ess likely I can,"
he said, grimly. "Well, some of these days I may run afoul of Egbert
again. When I do----" The fist closed a little tighter.

"You won't touch him. Promise me you won't. If you should, I---- Oh,
dear! I think I should be afraid to touch your hands afterwards."

Sears smiled. "It might be safer to use my boot," he admitted. "Your
mother--how is she?"

"Can't you imagine? I think--I hope it is her pride that is hurt more
than anything. For some little time--well, ever since I found out that
she was lending him money--I have done my best to make her see what he
really is. But before that--oh, there is no use pretending, for you
know--she was insane about him. And now, with the shock and the
disillusionment and the shame, she is---- Oh, it is dreadful!"

"Do the--er--rest of 'em over there know it yet?"

"No, but they will very soon. And when they do! You know what some of
them are, what they will say. We can't stay there, mother and I. We must
go away--and we will."

She was crying, and if ever a man yearned for the role of comforter,
Sears Kendrick was that man. He tried to say something, but he was
afraid to trust his own tongue; it might run away with him. And before
his attempt was at all coherent, she went on.

"Don't mind me," she said, hastily wiping her eyes. "I am nervous, and I
have been through a bad hour, and--and I am acting foolishly, of course.
I know that this is, in a way, the very best thing that could happen.
This ends it, so far as mother is concerned. Oh, it might have been _so_
much worse! It looked as if it were going to be. Now she _knows_ what he
is. I have known it, or been almost sure of it, for a long time. And you
must have known it always, from the beginning. That is a part of what I
came here for this morning. Please tell me how you knew and--and all
about everything."

So he told her, beginning with what Judge Knowles had said concerning
Lobelia's husband, and continuing on to the end. She listened intently.

"Yes," she said. "I see. I wish you could have told me at first. I think
if I had known exactly how Judge Knowles felt I might not have been so
foolish. But I should have known--I should have seen for myself. Of
course I should. To think that I ever believed in such a creature, and
trusted him, and permitted him to influence me against--against a friend
like you. Oh, I must have been crazy!"

Kendrick shook his head. "No craziness about that," he declared.