is better for you to know
things as they actually stand. If it makes you hate him--well, it's no
more than he deserves."

"Ah, but I have to live with him," she broke in, with sudden passion.
"It is easy for you to talk of hating him, but I--I am his wife. I must
go on living by his side, whatever I may feel."

"Yes, I know," Curtis said. "But it won't make it any easier for either
of you to feel that there is this thing between you. Even he sees that.
You can't forgive him if you don't know what he has done."

"Then why doesn't he tell me himself?" she said.

"Because," Curtis answered, looking at her steadily, "it will be easier
for you to hear it from me. He saw that, too."

She could not deny it, but for some reason it hurt her to hear him say
so. She had a feeling that it was to Curtis's insistence, rather than to
her husband's consideration, that she owed this present respite.

"I will listen to you, then," she said.

Curtis began to walk up and down the room.

"First, with regard to Wentworth," he said. "There was a time once when
he occupied very much the position that I now hold. He was Mercer's
right-hand man. But he took to drink, and that did for him. I am afraid
he was never very sound. Anyhow, Mercer gave him up, and he disappeared.

"After he had gone, after I took his place, we found out one or two
things he had done which might have landed him in prison if Mercer had
followed them up. However, the man was gone, and it didn't seem worth
while to track him. It was not till afterwards that we heard he was at
Bowker Creek, and Mercer was then on the point of starting for England,
and decided to leave him alone.

"It's a poor place--Bowker Creek. He had got a job there as boundary
rider. I suppose he counted on the shearing season to set him up. But he
wasn't the sort of chap who ever gets on. And when Mercer met you on his
way out from the old country it was something of a shock to him to hear
that you were on your way to marry Robin Wentworth.

"Of course, he ought to have told you the truth, but instead of that he
made up his mind to take the business into his own hands and marry you
himself. He cabled from Colombo to Wentworth to wait for him at Bowker
Creek, hinted that if he went to the coast he would have him arrested,
and said something vague about coming to an understanding which induced
Wentworth to obey orders.

"Then he came straight here and pressed on to Rollandstown, taking
Beelz