ght to the truth. Every incident
of the day seemed to point a leering finger in the same direction, from
Mrs. Nimick's allusion to the imported damask curtains to Gregg's
confident appeal for rehabilitation.

"If you imagine that my wife distributes patronage--" he heard himself
repeating inanely, and the walls seemed to reverberate with the
laughter which his sister and Gregg had suppressed. He heard Ella rise
from the sofa and lifted his head sharply.

"Sit still!" he commanded. She sank back without speaking, and he hid
his face again. The past months, the past years, were dancing a
witches' dance about him. He remembered a hundred significant
things.... _Oh, God_, he cried to himself, _if only she does not lie
about it!_ Suddenly he recalled having pitied Mrs. Nimick because she
could not penetrate to the essence of his happiness. Those were the
very words he had used! He heard himself laugh aloud. The clock
struck--it went on striking interminably. At length he heard his wife
rise again and say with sudden authority: "John, you must speak."

Authority--she spoke to him with authority! He laughed again, and
through his laugh he heard the senseless rattle of the words, "If you
imagine that my wife distributes patronage ..."

He looked up haggardly and saw her standing before him. If only she
would not lie about it! He said: "You see what has happened."

"I suppose some one has told you about the 'Spy.'"

"Who told you? Gregg?" he interposed.

"Yes," she said quietly.

"That was why you wanted--?"

"Why I wanted you to help him? Yes."

"Oh, God! ... He wouldn't take money?"

"No, he wouldn't take money."

He sat silent, looking at her, noting with a morbid minuteness the
exquisite finish of her dress, that finish which seemed so much a part
of herself that it had never before struck him as a merely purchasable
accessory. He knew so little what a woman's dresses cost! For a moment
he lost himself in vague calculations; finally, he said: "What did you
do it for?"

"Do what?"

"Take money from Fleetwood."

She paused a moment and then said: "If you will let me explain--"

And then he saw that, all along, he had thought she would be able to
disprove it! A smothering blackness closed in on him, and he had a
physical struggle for breath. Then he forced himself to his feet and
said: "He was your lover?"

"Oh, no, no, _no!_" she cried with conviction. He hardly knew whether
the shadow lifted or deepened