ich she
looked pretty and prim, like a sweet little Puritan, in spite of the
pale pink vanity; and Arthur smiled when he saw her, but afterwards
grumbled: "Why did you cut your pretty hair off? I shouldn't have
thought you could do such a tasteless thing."

Beth knelt down beside his chair to mend the fire, and then she began
to tidy the hearth.

"Am I not the same person?" she asked.

"No, not quite," he answered. "You have set up a doubt where all was
settled certainty."

She had taken off the gloves she wore to do the grate, and was about
to pull herself up from her knees by the arm of his chair when he
spoke, but paused to ponder his words. It was with her left hand that
she had grasped the arm of his chair, and he happened to notice it
particularly as it rested there.

"You wear a wedding-ring, I see," he remarked. "Do you find it a
protection?"

"I never looked at it in that light," she answered. "In this vale of
tears I have a husband. That is why I wear it."

There was a perceptible pause, then he asked with an effort, "Where is
your husband?"

"At home, I suppose," said Beth, her voice growing strident with
dislike of the subject. "We do not correspond. He wishes to divorce
me."

"And what shall you do if he tries?" Brock asked.

"Nothing," she replied, and was for leaving him to draw his own
conclusions, but changed her mind. "Shall I tell you the story," she
said after a while.

"No, don't tell me," he rejoined quickly. "Your past is nothing to me.
Nothing that you may have done, and nothing that you may yet do, can
alter my feeling--my respect for you. As I have known you, so will you
always be to me--the sweetest, kindest friend I ever had, the best
woman I ever knew."

Men are monotonous creatures. Given a position, and ninety-nine out of
a hundred will come to the same conclusion about it, only by diverse
methods, according to their prejudices; and this is especially the
case when women are in question. Woman is generally out of focus in
the mind of man; he sees her less as she is than as she ought or ought
not to be. Beth did not thank Arthur Brock for his magnanimity. The
fact that he should shrink from hearing the story bespoke a doubt that
made his generous expression an offence. It may be kind to ignore the
past of a guilty person, but the innocent ask to be heard and judged;
and full faith has no fear of revelations.

Beth rose from her knees, and began to prepare the invalid's ev