wife ever tries
to deceive me, I shall be a mere child in her hands."

She rose abruptly from the sofa--kissed him on the forehead--and said
wildly, "I shall be better in bed!" Before he could move or speak, she
had left him.

X.

THE next morning he knocked at the door of his wife's room and asked how
she had passed the night.

"I have slept badly," she answered, "and I must beg you to excuse my
absence at breakfast-time." She called him back as he was about to
withdraw. "Remember," she said, "when you return from the gallery
to-day, I expect that you will not return alone."

* * * * *

Three hours later he was at home again. The young lady's services as a
copyist were at his disposal; she had returned with him to look at the
drawings.

The sitting-room was empty when they entered it. He rang for his wife's
maid--and was informed that Mrs. Lismore had gone out. Refusing to
believe the woman, he went to his wife's apartments. She was not to be
found.

When he returned to the sitting-room, the young lady was not unnaturally
offended. He could make allowances for her being a little out of
temper at the slight that had been put on her; but he was inexpressibly
disconcerted by the manner--almost the coarse manner--in which she
expressed herself.

"I have been talking to your wife's maid, while you have been away," she
said. "I find you have married an old lady for her money. She is jealous
of me, of course?"

"Let me beg you to alter your opinion," he answered. "You are wronging
my wife; she is incapable of any such feeling as you attribute to her."

The young lady laughed. "At any rate you are a good husband," she said
satirically. "Suppose you own the truth? Wouldn't you like her better if
she was young and pretty like me?"

He was not merely surprised--he was disgusted. Her beauty had so
completely fascinated him, when he first saw her, that the idea of
associating any want of refinement and good breeding with such a
charming creature never entered his mind. The disenchantment to him was
already so complete that he was even disagreeably affected by the tone
of her voice: it was almost as repellent to him as the exhibition of
unrestrained bad temper which she seemed perfectly careless to conceal.

"I confess you surprise me," he said, coldly.

The reply produced no effect on her. On the contrary, she became more
insolent than ever.

"I have a fertile fancy," she went on,