t was evidently most
distasteful to his conservative and conventional British nature.

"Hit was Annie, Mrs. Felderson's maid, sir, that hupset the servants.
W'en she came down from hup-stairs, she said as 'ow Mrs. Felderson was
a ragin' and a rampagin' around 'er room, sayin' that if Mr. Felderson
didn't give 'er a divorce, she would do violence to 'im, sir."

"Did Annie hear her say that?" I questioned.

"She says so, sir."

The whole thing was so monstrous that I gasped. For this awful
dime-novel muck to be tumbled into the middle of my family was too
sickening. My sister, running away from her husband with another man
and now threatening, in the hearing of the servants, to kill him,
unless he gave her a divorce, disgusted me with its cheap vulgarity. I
hid, as best I could, the tempest that was brewing inside me.

"Wicks, Mrs. Felderson is not well. Tell the servants that she is
greatly depressed over an accident that happened to a friend. At the
present time, she is so upset over that, she really doesn't know what
she is saying. Quiet them in some way, Wicks! And tell Annie to stay
with Mrs. Felderson!"

"Very good, sir." He started to leave.

"And, Wicks--"

"Yes, sir."

"There is no need of your looking for another place."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir!"

Wicks departed and I was left to my gloomy thoughts. Helen must be
brought to her senses. Mary and I must work, either to bring her back
to Jim, or, if that prove hopeless, to see that the divorce was hurried
as much as possible. The very thought of having Mary along with me,
with her inexhaustible fund of God-given humor and common sense, gave
me a vast amount of comfort and confidence.

At this point, Jim came in. He had had a bath and a shave and had put
on a dinner-coat, looking a lot more fit to grapple with his troubles
than he had the last time I had seen him. Only in his eyes did he show
the shock he'd received that day.

"Communing with yourself in the dark, Bupps?"--his voice was natural
and easy.

"Yes," I sighed, "I've been trying to see a way out of this mess."

Jim lit a cigarette and threw himself into a chair. For a few moments
he puffed in silence, taking deep inhalations and blowing the smoke
against the lighted tip, so that it showed all the rugged, strength of
his superb head.

"What would you say, Bupps, if I told you everything would come out all
right?"

"And Helen stay with you?" I asked incredulously.