ce come home to a contented wife and a
clean house, George's wavering affection would have been regained. But
Emeline was a loud-mouthed, assertive woman now, noisily set upon her
own way, and filled with a sense of her own wrongs. She had discussed
George too often with her friends to feel any possible interest in him
except as a means of procuring sympathy. George bored her now; as a
matter of fact, Emeline had almost decided that she would prefer alimony
to George.

Goaded on by Mrs. Povey, and a young Mrs. Sunius, affectionately known
as Maybelle, Emeline went to see a lawyer. The lawyer surprised her by
his considerate brevity. Getting a divorce was a very simple affair,
much better done than not. There were ways to make a man pay his alimony
regularly, and the little girl would stay with her mother, of course; at
her age no other solution was possible. Emeline felt that she must know
how much expense she would be put to, and was gratified to find that it
would cost her not more than fifty dollars. The lawyer asked her how
soon she could get hold of her husband.

"Why, he'll let me know as soon as he's in town," Emeline said vaguely;
"he'll come home."

"Come home, eh?" said the lawyer, with a shrewd look. "He knows your
intentions, of course?"

"He ought to!" said Emeline with spirit, and she began again: "I don't
think there's a person in the world could say that I'm not a good wife,
Mr. Knowles! I never so much as looked at another man--I swear to God I
never did! And there's no other man in the case. If I can have my
dolling little girl, and just live quiet, with a few friends near me,
that's all I ask! If Mr. Page had his way, I'd never put foot out of
doors; but mind you, _he'd_ be off with the boys every night. And that
means drink, you know--"

"Well, well," the young lawyer said soothingly, "I guess you've been
treated pretty mean, all right."

Emeline went home to find--somewhat to her embarrassment--that George
had come in, and was in his happiest mood, and playing with Julia. Julia
had somehow lost her babyish beauty now; she was thin and lanky, four
teeth were missing, and even her glorious mop of hair seemed what her
mother called "slinky."

"I landed the Fox order right over Colton's head!" said George.

Emeline said: "I wish to the Lord you'd quit opening that window,
leaving the wind blow through here like a cave!"

"Well, the place smelled like a Jap's room!" George retorted, instantly