With his heavy polo whip raised he sprang at the mason. Adelle dragged
at his arm, and he turned to shake her off, raising his free hand
threateningly.

"Take care!" the mason called out. "Don't hit a woman!"

As if in defiance, as if to show that he could hit at least this woman
who belonged to him by law, even though her possessions might not belong
to him entirely, Archie's left hand came down upon Adelle's arm with
sufficient force to be called a blow. Adelle dropped her grip of her
husband's arm with a slight cry of fright and shame rather than of pain.
Archie did not have to step forward to get at the mason, for with one
bound Clark sprang from his seat on the box and dealt Archie such a
smashing blow in the middle of the face that he fell crumpled in a heap
on the ground between Adelle and the mason. He lay there gasping and
groaning for a few moments--long enough for Adelle to realize completely
how she loathed him. Before this she had known that she was not happy in
her marriage, that Archie was far from the lover she had dreamed of,
that he was lacking in certain common virtues very necessary in any
society. Indeed, he had treated her roughly before now, in accesses of
alcoholic irritation, but always there had been in her mind a lingering
affection for the boy she had once loved and spoiled--enough to make her
pardon and forget. But now she saw him beneath the skin with the deadly
clearness of vision that precludes all forgiveness.

At last Archie crawled giddily to his feet, his nose running with blood
which spattered over his rumpled silk shirt. He looked at his opponent
uncertainly, as if he would like to try conclusions again, but a glance
at the mason's large hard hands and stocky frame was enough. Turning, he
said,--"I'll fix you for this," and started for Highcourt.

"Oh, go to hell!" the mason called after him, resuming his seat on the
soap-box and relighting his pipe.

Adelle, before she followed her husband, said to her new-found cousin in
a tone clear enough to reach Archie's ears,--

"Of course you are not discharged. I am very sorry for this."

"That's all right," the mason replied. "I don't worry about him."

Archie kept on as if he had not heard, and Adelle followed back to
Highcourt at sufficient distance not to be forced to speak to him. They
did not meet or speak that night, which had happened before more than
once. Adelle lay awake far into the night, thinking many surprisingly
ne