ow shamefully hiding from her
husband in the same hotel. No doubt Kitty had some good reason for her
chivalrous act. But she could see the unmistakable effect of that act
upon the more logically reasoning husband, and that it might lead him to
be more merciful to the later wrong. And there was a keener irony that
his first movement of unconscious kindliness towards her was the outcome
of his affection for his undeserving wife.

"You said just now she was more practical than you," she said dryly.
"Apart from this evidence of it, what other reasons have you for
thinking so? Do you refer to her independence or her dealings in the
stock market?" she added, with a laugh.

"No," said Barker seriously, "for I do not think her quite practical
there; indeed, I'm afraid she is about as bad as I am. But I'm glad you
have spoken, for I can now talk confidentially with you, and as you
and she are both in the same ventures, perhaps she will feel less
compunction in hearing from you--as your own opinion--what I have
to tell you than if I spoke to her myself. I am afraid she trusts
implicitly to Van Loo's judgment as her broker. I believe he is strictly
honorable, but the general opinion of his business insight is not high.
They--perhaps I ought to say HE--have been at least so unlucky that
they might have learned prudence. The loss of twenty thousand dollars in
three months"--

"Twenty thousand!" echoed Mrs. Horncastle.

"Yes. Why, you knew that; it was in the mine you and she visited; or,
perhaps," he added hastily, as he flushed at his indiscretion, "she
didn't tell you that."

But Mrs. Horncastle as hastily said, "Yes--yes--of course, only I had
forgotten the amount;" and he continued:--

"That loss would have frightened any man; but you women are more daring.
Only Van Loo ought to have withdrawn. Don't you think so? Of course I
couldn't say anything to him without seeming to condemn my own wife; I
couldn't say anything to HER because it's her own money."

"I didn't know that Mrs. Barker had any money of her own," said Mrs.
Horncastle.

"Well, I gave it to her," said Barker, with sublime simplicity, "and
that would make it all the worse for me to speak about it."

Mrs. Horncastle was silent. A new theory flashed upon her which seemed
to reconcile all the previous inconsistencies of the situation. Van
Loo, under the guise of a lover, was really possessing himself of Mrs.
Barker's money. This accounted for the risks he was