tself, but at this moment for some inexplicable
reason peculiarly aggravating to the man. It may be that her apparent
ease at a critical period in their fortunes appealed to him as hatefully
incongruous; it may be that the gracious femininity of her, her
desirability as a woman, thus revealed by the lissome lassitude of her
body, emphasized the fact that she was a creature created for joy and
dalliance, not for the rasping stratagems of the market-place. Whatever
the cause, it is certain that the lazy abandon of her posture irritated
him, and it was with an attempt to veil his chagrin that at last he
spoke:

"Well," he exclaimed petulantly, "some more of your work, I see!"

Cicily, however, disguised the fact that she winced under the contempt
in his tone.

"Yes," she answered eagerly. "Now, don't you see that I was right?"

The device did not suffice to divert Hamilton from his purpose of
rebuke.

"So," he went on, speaking roughly, "not content with forgetting your
duty, not satisfied with your dreary failure as a wife, you've turned
traitor, too."

"You seem to forget that it was yourself who failed in your duty--not
I," Cicily retorted.

"Is that trumped up, farcical idea, your excuse for fighting me?"

"I'm not making any excuses," Cicily replied, stiffly. "And for the
simple and very sufficient reason that I am not fighting you."

"Then, what under heaven do you call it?" Hamilton demanded, with a
sneer. "Is it by any chance saving me?"

[Illustration]

"Yes, I'd do that," came the courageous statement, "if only you'd let
me."

"And your manner of doing it," Hamilton went on, still in a tone of
sneering contempt, "I suppose would be by going on the way you have been
going--giving money to my enemies, and so prolonging the strike, and so
ruining me!"

"I do believe you are blind!" Cicily declared, angrily. She changed her
pose to one of erect alertness, and her eyes flashed fire at her
husband. "Is it possible that you don't appreciate why I gave those
women money--why I helped them? Why, I wouldn't be a woman, if I didn't.
As I've told you before, I was a woman before I became a wife. If
keeping other women and little children from going hungry isn't wifely,
isn't businesslike, then thank God I'm not wifely, not businesslike!"

"Well, you're not, all right," Hamilton announced succinctly. "I'm glad
that you're satisfied with yourself--nobody else is."

"Oh, I know what you want," was the contem