d glasses. My impression, gathered in
that first furious glance, was that he had brought up her dinner and
she had invited him to stay and share at least the wine and
cigarettes. Some of these lay on the table, and the room was full of
smoke.

Suzee gave a scream of terror and then crouched down on a chair,
looking at me.

The waiter picked himself up, and, catching hold of his iron
stove-fitted basket in which he had brought up the dinner, slunk out
of the room.

I was left alone with Suzee, and I looked at her, with an immense
sense of disgust and repulsion swelling up in me.

"So you can't even be trusted an hour or two, it seems," I said
contemptuously, throwing myself into a chair opposite her.

Suzee began to sob. Tears were her invariable refuge under all
circumstances.

"Treevor, you were so long. I was all alone, and I was sure you were
with another woman."

"If you would learn to believe what I say and not fancy every one
tells lies, as I suppose you do," I answered hotly, "it would be a
great deal better for you. I went to dine with a bachelor friend this
evening, as I told you, and what made me later than I otherwise should
have been was that I stopped to buy a present for you on my way back."

Suzee's tears dried instantly.

"A present! Oh, what is it, Treevor?" she said eagerly. "Do show it
me. Where is it?"

I drew the case out of my pocket and opened it. The electric light
flashed on the opals, and they blazed with orange and tawny fires on
the white velvet.

Suzee gave a little cry of wonder and delight, and then sat staring at
them breathlessly.

"I don't feel at all inclined to give them to you now," I remarked
coldly.

"Oh, yes, Treevor, _do_ let me have them. It was all the man's fault.
I did not want him. I could not help it."

"I heard you laughing as I came in," I returned, more than ever
disgusted by her lies and her throwing all the blame on her companion.
"It's no use lying to me, Suzee, you found that out at Sitka. What I
want to make clear to you is this: if I find you doing this sort of
thing again I shall send you away from me altogether, because I won't
have it."

Suzee looked terror-stricken.

"Send me away! But what could I do? Where could I go?"

"Where you pleased! You would not live any more with me."

"Well, Treevor, I will not do it any more," she answered, her eyes
fixed on the jewels. "Do let me have the necklace. May I put it on?"

And she stretched o