ll," said Mrs. Crothers steadily.
"And now to narrow this down to Joe, you wanted him to be like that--in
his work and so in his life with you. Was that it?"

"Yes! And he used to be! You must know that!"

"Yes--I knew that. Your husband and I were once very good friends."

"That's it, and I guessed it!" Ethel cried. "I was making wild guesses
in the dark. And at last I put my finger on his partner, and we had a
talk. It was a talk, a hard one--but I made him believe me in the end.
And he told me a little about you--and I wanted to meet you, oh, so
much! But he seemed to be out of touch with you, so he took me to Mr.
Dwight instead. I had always wanted to sing, you know--and the rest of
it--well, Mr. Dwight must have told you."

"Only a little," was the reply. "I don't yet fully understand. How did
all this bring trouble with Joe? It's something serious, you said--"

"It's something very nasty." And Ethel began telling of Fanny's
revelations. In the midst of it the door-bell rang.

"One moment." And Sally went into the hall. "Whoever it is, say I've a
headache," Ethel heard her tell the maid. "The same old headache,"
Sally remarked as she grimly pulled the portieres. They waited in a
tense little silence till the visitor had gone. "And Alice," Sally
called to the maid. "If any one else comes, say I'm out." She turned
back to Ethel, smiling:

"Suppose you stay to supper. I'll telephone my husband to dine at his
club--and we'll go right on with this talk of ours. We'll go on," she
added determinedly, "until we have Joe so in our toils that he'll be
yours so long as he lives."

Ethel suddenly sniffed and swallowed hard, and said, "Oh, what a dear
you are to me!"

Sally looked at her queerly.

"This is to be a talk without tears, but much good sensible planning,"
she said. "I don't blame you a bit for having been frightened--you've
been through an ugly time. But I think with a little common sense--"

"I know," said Ethel, "that's just what I need. And that is why I came
to you."

"Thank you," Sally smiled again. "Now go on about Mrs. Carr."

The talk went on, with interruptions for supper and Sally's two small
children, far into the evening. And Mrs. Crothers did her
share--filling in for Ethel the picture of Joe's old life, his work and
dreams, and his first marriage. She told of several meetings with Amy.
And all the time she kept watching, probing into this young second wife,
skilfully raising Ethel's hop