His
idle roaming led him past Center Church. It was prayer-meeting night,
and through the open windows floated a hymn sung waveringly by the small
gathering of the faithful. It was here, on just such an April night,
that he and Lois had sworn to love and cherish each other to the end of
their days. He had been profoundly moved that night, standing before the
reverend president of the college in the crowded church and repeating
his vows after the kindly, lovable old man. And he remembered how, as
they left the church, the assembled students had shown their good-will
in ringing cheers. But these memories had lost their poignancy. Verily,
he did not care!

Finding himself presently before Amzi's house, he remembered without
emotion that Lois was established there. It was an ironic fling of the
dice that had brought her back prosperous and presumably happy to lure
Phil away from him! He walked slowly; the proximity of his recreant wife
gave him neither pang nor thrill. He loitered that the test might be the
more complete.

A man had been walking toward him from the farther side of the
Montgomery place, and something furtive in his movements caused Kirkwood
to pause. Then, after halting uncertainly and fumbling at the chain that
held the Kirkwood gate together, the man retraced his steps, and
guardedly let himself into the Fosdicks' yard. Kirkwood listened, and
hearing no further sounds dismissed the matter. It now occurred to him
to visit his own property, whose decrepitude Amzi had brought to his
attention, and finding that he had matches and the house key, he lifted
the chain from the rickety gate and passed into the garden. Kirkwood was
preoccupied with the idea of putting the house and lot in order and
selling it. Now that he was confident that it no longer held any
associations for him, he was in haste to be rid of it. He would sell the
place and invest the proceeds for Phil. He smiled ironically as he
remembered the disparity between his own fortunes and those of his
former wife. He did not resent her prosperity; he did not understand it;
but if it was the way of the gods to visit fortune upon the unrighteous,
so much the worse for the gods.

A brick walk curved round the house, and as he was about to step from it
to the veranda he heard voices that came seemingly from the jutting
corner of a wing that had been his library. He had no wish to be found
there. Very likely the yard was visited frequently by prowlers; a