kes," said Dorothy in a voice barely above a
whisper. "I didn't expect them. When I found they had come I hardly
knew what to do. And when they declared I had no husband I had to
request you to come."

"Something of the sort was my conclusion," Garrison told her. "I have
blundered along with fact and fiction as best I might, but what am I
supposed to have done that excites them both to insult me?"

Dorothy seemed afraid that the very walls might hear and betray her
secret.

"Your supposed marriage to me is sufficient," she answered in the
lowest of undertones. "You must have guessed that they feel themselves
cheated out of this house and other property left in a relative's will."

"Cheated by your marriage?" said Garrison.

She nodded, watching to see if a look of distrust might appear in the
gaze he bent upon her.

"I wouldn't dare attempt to inform you properly or adequately to-night,
with my uncle in the house," she said. "But please don't believe I've
done anything wrong--and don't desert me now."

She had hardly intended to appeal to him so helplessly, but somehow she
had been so glad to lean upon his strength, since his meeting with her
relatives, that the impulse was not to be resisted. Moreover she felt,
in some strange working of the mind, that she had come to know him as
well within the past half-hour as she had ever known anyone in all her
life. Her trust had gone forth of its own volition, together with her
gratitude and admiration, for the way he had taken up her cause.

"I left the matter entirely with you this afternoon," he said. "I only
wish to know so much as you yourself deem essential. I feel this man
is vindictive, cowardly, and crafty. Are you sure you are safe where
he is?"

"Oh, yes, I'm quite safe, even if it is unpleasant," she told him,
grateful for his evident concern. "If need be, the caretaker would
fight a pack of wolves in my defense."

"This will?" asked Garrison. "When is it going to be settled--when
does it come to probate?"

"I don't quite know."

"When is your real husband coming?" he inquired, more for her own
protection than his own.

She had not admitted, in the afternoon, that she had a husband. She
colored now as she tried to meet his gaze.

"Did I tell you there was such a person?"

"No," said Garrison, "you did not. I thought---- Perhaps that's one
of the many things I am not obliged to know."

"Perhaps." She hesitated a moment, adding: "I