went on. His manner had lost all the contrition he had
displayed at alarming her. It was abstracted. He too seemed to be
thinking deeply, far away amidst scenes which afforded him only the
deepest pain.

"I've just thought," he said. Then he raised one strong hand and
passed it across his broad forehead. He drew a profound sigh. "Say, I
wonder," he went on reflectively. "It's things Bud's said in his yarn.
Suspicions. They brought up all sorts of queer things to my mind."

The smile he essayed was a hopeless failure. Then, in a moment, all
doubt seemed to pass away and he spoke with quick, keen decision.

"I'll have to tell you, Evie. You'd sort of made me forget. These
days have been the happiest I've ever known, and you've made 'em so.
That's how I forgot to tell you of things I guess you ought to know."

But the woman before him had no desire for his present mood. She
smilingly shook her head in a decided negative. The last thing she
desired was anything in the nature of a confidence.

"Is there any need--now?" she asked. Then she smiled. "The stores are
waiting."

But she had yet to learn the real character of the man whom she had
married. She had yet to understand the meaning of the simple sobriquet
"Honest Jeff," which Nan Tristram had long since bestowed upon him. He
was not the man to be turned from a decision once taken. The decision
on this occasion was arrived at through the depth of the passionate
devotion which controlled his every thought. His love for Elvine made
his purpose only the more irrevocable.

"I think they had best wait a shade longer," he said with a shadowy
smile. "You see, Evie, I kind of figure there's things that matter
more than just gathering in the fancy goods money'll buy--even for you.
Guess I owe you most everything a man can give, the same as you feel
toward me. That's how marriage--marriage like ours--seems to me. As
far as I can make it there's not going to be a thing on my conscience
toward you. I'd have told you this before, only--only you just drove
it right out of my head with the sight of your beautiful face, the
sound of your voice, which I just love, and the thought that you--you
were to be my wife. You see," he went on simply, "I hadn't room in my
head for anything else."

His manner was so firmly gentle that Elvine's protest melted before it.
After all it was very sweet, and--and---- She drew a chair forward and
sat down. But her smile hi