held the
candle to the bowl. Kilquhanity smiled, drew a long breath, and blew out
a cloud of thick smoke. For a moment he puffed vigorously, then, all
at once, the pleasure of it seemed to die away, and presently the bowl
dropped down on his chin. M. Garon lifted it away. Kilquhanity did not
speak, but kept saying something over and over again to himself, looking
beyond M. Garon abstractedly.

At that moment the front door of the house opened, and presently
a shrill voice came through the door: "Shmokin', shmokin', are ye,
Kilquhanity? As soon as me back's turned, it's playin' the fool--" She
stopped short, seeing the Avocat.

"Beggin' yer pardon, Misther Garon," she said, "I thought it was only
Kilquhanity here, an' he wid no more sense than a babby."

Kilquhanity's eyes closed, and he buried one side of his head in the
pillow, that her shrill voice should not pierce his ears.

"The Little Chemist 'll be comin' in a minit, dear Misther Garon," said
the wife presently, and she began to fuss with the bedclothes and to be
nervously and uselessly busy.

"Aw, lave thim alone, darlin'," whispered Kilquhanity, tossing. Her
officiousness seemed to hurt him more than the pain in his chest.

M. Garon did not wait for the Little Chemist to arrive, but after
pressing the Sergeant's hand he left the house and went straight to the
house of the Cure, and told him in what condition was the black sheep of
his flock.

When M. Garon returned to his own home he found a visitor in his
library. It was a woman, between forty and fifty years of age, who rose
slowly to her feet as the Avocat entered, and, without preliminary, put
into his hands a document.

"That is who I am," she said. "Mary Muddock that was, Mary Kilquhanity
that is."

The Avocat held in his hands the marriage lines of Matthew Kilquhanity
of the parish of Malahide and Mary Muddock of the parish of St. Giles,
London. The Avocat was completely taken aback. He blew nervously through
his pale fingers, raised himself up and down on his toes, and grew pale
through suppressed excitement. He examined the certificate carefully,
though from the first he had no doubt of its accuracy and correctness.

"Well?" said the woman, with a hard look in her face and a hard note in
her voice. "Well?"

The Avocat looked at her musingly for a moment. All at once there
had been unfolded to him Kilquhanity's story. In his younger days
Kilquhanity had married this woman with a face of ti