-but I couldn't."

He listened in silence. There was no anger in his eyes, no menace in
his attitude. He merely appeared dumbfounded, crushed; there was in his
face a look of mute, helpless astonishment, as a child might look when
it saw an edifice of sand carefully and lovingly erected, levelled to
the ground by the first careless wave. Almost apologetically he said:

"I--I know I couldn't help much, and perhaps I could have forgiven you
if you hadn't lied to me. That's what hurt."

He turned fiercely on Brockton, and approaching close so he could look
him straight in the eyes, he said contemptuously:

"I expected you to lie; you're that kind of a man. You left me with a
shake of the hand, and you gave me your word, and you didn't keep it.
Why should you keep it? Why should anything make any difference to you?
Why, you pup, you've no right to live in the same world with decent
folks. Now you make yourself scarce, or take it from me, I'll just kill
you, that's all!"

"I'll leave, Madison," replied the broker coolly; "but I'm not going to
let you think that I didn't do the right thing with you. She came to me
voluntarily. She said she wanted to come back. I told you she'd do that
when I was in Colorado; you didn't believe me. I told you that when she
did this sort of thing I'd let you know. I dictated a letter to her to
send to you, and I left it, sealed and stamped, in her hands to mail.
She didn't do it. If there's been a lie, she told it. I didn't."

Madison looked at Laura, who hung her head in mute acknowledgment of
her guilt. As he suddenly realized how she had tricked him he turned
pale, and with a smothered cry sank down on one of the trunks. Until
this very moment he still believed in her. He could have forgiven her
returning to Brockton, everything; but she had deliberately lied to him
and deceived him. That he could never forgive. There was a moment's
silence, and Brockton advanced towards him.

"You see! Why, my boy, whatever you think of me or the life I lead, I
wouldn't have had this come to you for anything in the world. No, I
wouldn't. My women don't mean a whole lot to me because I don't take
them seriously. I wish I had the faith and the youth to feel the way
you do. You're all in and broken up, but I wish I could be broken up
just once. I did what I thought was best for you because I didn't think
she could ever go through the way you wanted her to. I'm sorry it's all
turned out bad. Good-bye."