ontgomery! She would never do that. Come, you
mustn't trifle with me; it's--it's too horrible."

His voice sank to a whisper with his last word. The word and his tone in
uttering it had not expressed the full sense of the horror that was in
his face.

"It is true, daddy," she said softly, kindly. "I have seen her; I have
talked with her."

"You saw her at Amzi's?" he asked dully.

"Yes; she came last night. I didn't know it until I got to the house
this morning. They were all there, and when I went in they tried to send
me off; they thought I oughtn't to see her."

"There was a scene, then; they were ugly about it?"

"They tried to be; but it didn't go!"

He noted the faltering triumph of her tone and looked at her more
closely.

"They wanted her to go and she held her ground against them?"

"I held it with her," said Phil.

"You didn't think she should go; was that it, Phil?"

"I didn't think she should be treated like a dog!"

Phil drew away, with her head held high, her fists tightly clenched.
Kirkwood walked slowly across the room thrice while she stood immovable.
He recalled her presence in a moment and remarked absently:--

"Amzi should have told me. It wasn't fair for him to do this. If I had
known last night that she was here--"

He broke off with a groan. The resigned, indifferent air he had lately
flung off possessed him again, and seeing it the pity stole back into
her heart. She moved about, avoiding him, fearful of meeting again that
hurt, wounded look in his eyes. The short day was drawing to an end, and
the shadows deepened. He was mechanically lighting his pipe, and she
crouched in her favorite seat by the fire.

"It's a little tough, Phil," he said finally with a revival of courage,
pausing in his slow, aimless wandering through the rooms. "It's a little
tough after so long, and _now_."

She could not controvert this; she merely waited to see what further he
had to say. He paused presently, his arm on the mantel-shelf, his
fingers nervously playing with his pipe.

"What is she like, Phil?"

"Oh, she is lovely! She is the most charming woman that ever lived!"

"You liked her, then; she was nice to you?"

"She is dear and sweet and wonderful! Oh, I didn't know she would be
like that!"

His eyes opened and shut quickly. There was an implied accusation
against him in the fervor of her admiration for the wife who had
deserted him. He groped for something in self-justification with