as another act of submission which might satisfy his wife.

Even a clever woman will occasionally make mistakes; especially when
her temper happens to have been roused. Mrs. Vimpany found herself in a
false position, due entirely to her own imprudence.

She had been guilty of three serious errors. In the first place she had
taken it for granted that Mr. Vimpany's restorative mixture would
completely revive the sober state of his brains. In the second place,
she had trusted him with her vengeance on the man who had found his way
to her secrets through her husband's intemperance. In the third place,
she had rashly assumed that the doctor, in carrying out her
instructions for insulting Mountjoy, would keep within the limits which
she had prescribed to him, when she hit on the audacious idea of
attributing his disgraceful conduct to the temptation offered by his
host's example. As a consequence of these acts of imprudence, she had
exposed herself to a misfortune that she honestly dreaded--the loss of
the place which she had carefully maintained in Miss Henley's
estimation. In the contradictory confusion of feelings, so often found
in women, this deceitful and dangerous creature had been
conquered--little by little, as she had herself described it--by that
charm of sweetness and simplicity in Iris, of which her own depraved
nature presented no trace. She now spoke with hesitation, almost with
timidity, in addressing the woman whom she had so cleverly deceived, at
the time when they first met.

"Must I give up all, Miss Henley, that I most value?" she asked.

"I hardly understand you, Mrs. Vimpany."

"I will try to make it plainer. Do you really mean to leave me this
evening?"

"I do."

"May I own that I am grieved to hear it? Your departure will deprive me
of some happy hours, in your company."

"Your husband's conduct leaves me no alternative," Iris replied.

"Pray do not humiliate me by speaking of my husband! I only want to
know if there is a harder trial of my fortitude still to come. Must I
lose the privilege of being your friend?"

"I hope I am not capable of such injustice as that," Iris declared. "It
would be hard indeed to lay the blame of Mr. Vimpany's shameful
behaviour on you. I don't forget that you made him offer an apology.
Some women, married to such a man as that, might have been afraid of
him. No, no; you have been a good friend to me--and I mean to remember
it."

Mrs. Vimpany's gratitude was