rs from her careworn face.

"Ten weeks ago," I continued, "we parted, and he has fled, branded as a
criminal in my eyes, by evidence which no one can doubt. I am alone,
despondent, and insanity or hard work must be my escape. As I cannot get
my mind on my business, I fear the worst. The blow is more than I can
bear."

"Pshaw! You're only a young man. You don't know what sorrow is. When you
spoke so sad, you brought a tear to my eye, but I never let the tears
get the best of me. I think you are weak in body yet. You need better
food. You don't eat right. You ought to go out to some good restaurant
and get three square meals a day. You have the money to pay for them,
and you ought to do it."

"Eat! Don't speak of eating. My appetite is all gone. Some day I may get
over this dismal feeling and take your kind advice, but not now."

"Men have no grit. It takes a woman, I'm thinking, to carry a
heart-load. If it was a woman you were worrying about, I'd coddle you a
little; but I never knew a man who ran away from his friends who was
worth a tear. You'll soon see the folly of it."

"I don't blame you for hating all men," said I, knowingly. "You judge
the sex by the specimen you have at home. All women do the same at your
age."

"You're crazy, now, Mr. Hopkins," blurted the woman, her anger quickly
rising. "Two days in my house and you undertake to advise me against my
husband with whom I have lived in peace for twenty-five years. Have I
given you license to interfere in my affairs? You astonish me with your
impertinence! You amaze me! No man has ever dared to offer me such an
insult! I will have you understand, sir, that Mr. Dewey is my husband,
and I will allow no one to slightingly refer to him in my presence." She
was heaving and grasping the broom pretty firmly. I crawled into a
farther chair.

"Why, madam, I overheard you in the hall this morning berating him as
the laziest vagabond that ever breathed, and you prayed--"

"Never mind. He's my husband. When I want some one to interfere, I'll go
to a lawyer, who's in that business. I won't peddle my troubles to
strangers. If you haven't any more sense than to interfere in our
affairs, you must be crazy now, and if I were you I wouldn't worry about
getting crazy."

Mrs. Dewey passed out and slammed the door.

I wanted to go right down and jump off the dock when this
counter-irritant blistered me and her tonic bitters were poured into my
lethargic circulation. Sti