nd relations, all waiting to know why you don't
get rid of me, why you don't believe me to be as bad as they think I
am----"

Howard raised his hand for her to desist.

"Annie--please!" he pleaded.

"That's the fact, isn't it?" she laughed.

"No."

His wife's head dropped on the table. She was crying now.

"I've made a hard fight, Howard," she sobbed, "but I'm going to give up.
I'm through--I'm through!"

Howard took hold of her hand and carried it to his lips.

"Annie, old girl," he said with some feeling, "I may be weak, I may be
blind, but nobody on top of God's green earth can tell me that you're
not the squarest, straightest little woman that ever lived! I don't care
a damn what one million or eighty million think. Supposing you had
received letters from Underwood, supposing you had gone to his rooms to
beg him not to kill himself--what of it? It would be for a good motive,
wouldn't it? Let them talk all the bad of you they want. I don't believe
a word of it--you know I don't."

She looked up and smiled through her tears.

"You're so good, dear," she exclaimed. "Yes, I know you believe in me."
She stopped and continued sadly: "But you're only a boy, you know. What
of the future, the years to come?" Howard's face became serious, and she
went on: "You see you've thought about it, too, and you're trying to
hide it from me. But you can't. Your father wants you to go abroad with
the family."

"Well?"

He waited and looked at her curiously as if wondering what her answer
would be. He waited some time, and then slowly she said:

"I think--you had better go!"

"You don't mean that!" he exclaimed, in genuine surprise.

She shook her head affirmatively.

"Yes, I do," she said; "your father wants you to take your position in
the world, the position you are entitled to, the position your
association with me prevents you from taking----"

Howard drummed his fingers on the tablecloth and looked out of the
window. It seemed to her that his voice no longer had the same candid
ring as he replied:

"Yes, father has spoken to me about it. He wants to be friends, and
I----" He paused awkwardly, and then added: "I admit I've--I've promised
to consider it, but----"

Annie finished his sentence for him:

"You're going to accept his offer, Howard. You owe it to yourself, to
your family, and to----" She laughed as she added: "I was going to say
to a million anxious readers."

Howard looked at her curiously. He