in his voice--

"Remember--you are my wife. If you have no regard for your own
reputation, you shall have some for mine. I don't want to entertain my
friends by thrashing R----, but I'm not such a fool as you think. And
if you go further in this direction you'll find me a bit of a brute."

Again the sneering laugh--"Indeed! Something very tragic will occur, I
suppose?"

"No," said Challis grimly, "something damned prosaic--common enough
among men with pretty wives--I'll clear out."

"I wish you would do that now," said his wife, "I hate you quite
enough."

Of course she didn't quite mean it. She really liked Challis in her own
small-souled way--principally because his money had given her the
social pleasures denied her during her girlhood. With an unmoved face
and without farewell he left her and went to his lawyer's.

A quarter of an hour later he arose to go, and the lawyer asked him
when he intended returning.

"That all depends upon her. If she wants me back again, she can write,
through you, and I'll come--if she has conducted herself with a
reasonable amount of propriety for such a pretty woman."

Then, with an ugly look on his face, Challis went out; next day he
embarked in the LADY ALICIA for a six months' cruise among the islands
of the North-west Pacific.

* * * * *

That was four years ago, and to-day Challis, who stands working at a
little table set in against an open window, hammering out a ring from a
silver coin on a marline-spike and vyce, whistles softly and
contentedly to himself as he raises his head and glances through the
vista of coconuts that surround his dwelling on this lonely and almost
forgotten island.

"The devil!" he thinks to himself, "I must be turning into a native.
Four years! What an ass I was! And I've never written yet--that is,
never sent a letter away. Well, neither has she. Perhaps, after all,
there was little in that affair of R----'s.... By God! though, if
there was, I've been very good to them in leaving them a clear field.
Anyhow, she's all right as regards money. I'm glad I've done that. It's
a big prop to a man's conscience to feel he hasn't done anything mean;
and she likes money--most women do. Of course I'll go back--if she
writes. If not--well, then, these sinful islands can claim me for their
own; that is, Nalia can."

* * * * *

A native boy with shaven head, save for a long tuft on the left side,
came down from the village, and, seating himself on th