herwise. I will see her again to-night and
she will explain all, I am sure. There is no deceit in her." His
returning confidence eased, though it did not cure, his pain. It
substituted another after a little time--suspense. It was not in his
nature to brook suspense, and he determined again and again to see Rita
that evening.

But his suspense was ended without seeing Rita. When he reached home he
found Sukey, blushing and dimpling, before the fire, talking to his
mother.

"Been over to see Rita?" she asked, parting her moist, red lips in a
smile, showing a gleam of her little, white teeth, and dimpling
exquisitely.

"Yes," answered Dic, laconically.

"Thought maybe you would stay for supper," she continued.

"No," replied Dic.

"Perhaps the other fellow was there," remarked Sukey, shrugging her
plump shoulders and laughing softly. Dic did not reply, but drew a chair
to the hearth.

"Guess they're to be married soon," volunteered Sukey. "He has been
coming Saturdays and staying over Sunday ever since you left. Guess he
waited for you to get out of the way. I think he's so handsome. Met him
one Sunday afternoon at the step-off. I went over to see Rita, and her
mother said she had gone to take a walk with Mr. Williams in that
direction after dinner. I knew they would be at the step-off; it's such
a lonely place. He lives in Boston, and they say he's enormously rich."
During the long pause that followed Dic found himself entirely relieved
of suspense. There was certainty to his heart's content. He did not show
his pain; and much to her joy Sukey concluded that Dic did not care
anything about the relations between Williams and Rita.

"Rita showed me the ring he gave her," continued Sukey. Dic winced, but
controlled himself. It was his ring that Sukey had seen on Rita's
finger, but Dic did not know that.

"Some folks envy her," observed the dimpler, staring in revery at the
fire. "She'll have a fine house, servants, and carriages"--Dic
remembered having used those fatal words himself--"and will live in
Boston; but for myself--well, I never intend to marry, but if I do I'll
take one of the boys around here, or I'll die single. The boys here are
plenty good enough for me."

The big, blue eyes, covered by downcast lashes, were carefully examining
a pair of plump, little, brown hands resting in her lap, but after a
pause she flashed a hurried glance upon Dic, which he did not see.

When a woman cruelly wounds a ma