pose it was something you had done long ago that _I_ couldn't
forgive?"

"It isn't a question of forgiveness," he answered quickly.
"Forgiveness--when you are the sweetest and best wife a man ever had!
No, darling," he caught both her hands in his own, "you must never think
that, it's never that! It's only my mad, crazy jealousy. I tell you I'm
ashamed of it, and I _am_! Just be patient with me, Julia!"

Julia stared at him a few moments silently, her hands locked about his
neck.

"Ah, but you _worry_ me so when you're like this, Jim," she said
presently, in the gentle, troubled tone a mother might use. "There seems
to be nothing I can do. I can only worry and wait!"

"I know, I know," he said hastily. "Don't remind me of it! My father was
like that, you know. My father shot at a man once because he was rude to
my mother when he was drunk--shot him right through the shoulder! It
raised the very deuce of a scandal down there in Honolulu! He took
Mother to Europe to get away from the fuss, and paid the man the Lord
knows what to quiet the thing!"

"Yes, but life isn't like that, Jim," Julia protested. "Life isn't so
simple! Shooting at somebody, and buying his silence, and rushing off to
Europe! Why can't you just say to yourself reasonably--"

"'Reasonably,' dearest!" he echoed cheerfully, with a kiss. "When was a
jealous man ever reasonable!"

"But think how wonderfully happy we are, Jim," she persisted wistfully.
"Suppose there _is_ one part trouble, one part of your life that you don't
like, why can't you be happy because ninety-nine parts of it are
perfect?"

"I don't know; talking with you here, I can't understand it," he said.
"But I get thinking--I get thinking, and my heart begins to hammer, and
I lie awake nights, and I'd like to get up and strangle someone--"

His vehemence died into abashed silence before her grave eyes.

"I ought to be the one to stamp and rave over this," Julia said. "I
ought to remind you that you knew my history when you married me; and
you know life, too--you were ten years older than I, and how much more
experienced! All I knew was learned at the settlement house, or from
books. And the reason I _don't_ rave and stamp, Jim," she went on, "is
because I am different from you. I realize that that doesn't help
matters. We must make the best of it now, we must help each other! You
see I have no pride about it. I know I am better than many--than
most--of these society women all abo