put-up job
to make me jealous, and I laughed at it. But it has gone too far."

"Everything is all right," said Eveley soothingly. "They are just
playing. Nolan and I are with them all the time. There is nothing serious
between them."

"Don't be a fool," he said rudely. "You know that men and women can't
play like kids. Miriam wants a divorce."

Eveley sat down and swallowed hard.

"A divorce," he raged, champing wildly up and down the small room. "She
says there is nothing between them, and she does not love him, but she
can't stand me any more. Why can't she stand me? She stood me for five
years. What's come over her all of a sudden that she says it makes her
sick to kiss me? She won't even let me hold her hand. She says it is
blasphemous. Blasphemy to touch my own wife's hand! You know what that
means, don't you? She is in love with that--that--"

"You can't swear here," Eveley broke in quickly. "I won't have it. I
think you are mistaken, Lem. She doesn't want a divorce. Not really. She
wouldn't, you know."

"But she does, I tell you. She says it is sacrilege to live with me, and
so she is going off by herself to desert me, and says I've got to get a
divorce on those grounds when the time is up, or heaven only knows what
she'll do. Now, you got us into this mess, and you've got to stop it."

"I'll do what I can, Lem," she promised. "And so will Nolan. But between
you and me, I do not blame her. I wouldn't have lived with you two
months, myself."

"I have never wanted another woman in my life," he said brokenly. "It has
always been Miriam with me from the very minute I saw her. I have fooled
around a lot, I know, but it's always been Miriam for serious."

"Yes," she said bitterly. "That is it. It is just as Gordon says. A man
can fool around and still love his wife. But a nice woman can't. She is
strong for one man--at a time. When she falls for a new one, it is all
off with the last. You could love a dozen at a time, but Miriam is too
nice for that."

"But you promised--"

"Oh, yes, I'll do what I can, and I will advise her to stick it out, but
I think she will be very foolish if she takes my advice."

Nolan was immediately summoned, and a desperate struggle began with
Miriam. But it was really no struggle.

"Why, Eveley," she said reproachfully, "I am surprised at you. Can't you
see that a woman can not live with a man she dislikes? It makes the
shivers run down my back when he touches me. It--isn't n