for the dubious pleasures of a life of dissipation,
did not occur to him. He believed in the established moral code that
excuses the offenses of the man and eternally condemns the woman. Yet,
ready as he was to attribute culpability to her conduct, it was hard
even for him to reconcile her smooth, artless brow, her frank, limpid
eyes, her delicate, sensitive lips, with any act that savored of
unworthiness or deceit.

"It's hard to look at you and believe you guilty of wrong," he said
resentfully.

"It makes no difference to me what you believe," she snapped. "I'm
through with you! I shall obtain a divorce."

The storm which had been gathering force within him all morning now
broke in all its fury.

"You're going to get a divorce!" he cried ironically. "You still pretend
to be the injured one. You and Whitmore have it all framed up--eh! But I
tell you you've miscalculated this time! No man can wreck my home with
impunity! No man can enter my house to steal my wife--and get away with
it. I've been blind a long time, but my eyes are wide open now."

He walked to the telephone at the rear of the hall and lifted the
receiver off the hook.

"What are you going to do?" she demanded.

"Call up your brother. We'll see what he has to say about it."

Lester Ward, the brother of Mrs. Collins, also lived in Delmore Park. He
had succeeded to his father's banking business and occupied the house
which his parents had left. Fifteen minutes after Collins summoned him
over the telephone, he was seated in his sister's library, prepared to
mediate in what he guessed to be another quarrel between her and her
husband.

"This letter will explain itself," Collins opened the conversation.
Lifting the note out of the envelope, he read:

"_My Dear Grace_:

"Since I communicated with you last, additional reasons have
developed to justify your leaving him immediately. Your belief that
with all his faults he has adhered to his marriage vows is but a
delusion born of your own pure nature. I have the proof, if you
care to hear it. Grace, you told me you loved me. My love for you
is undiminished. Why sacrifice yourself longer--why sacrifice
me? I cannot endure to be parted from you. Start for Reno at
once--to-morrow is not too soon. Our love is too holy to be smitten
and made to suffer by one entirely unworthy of your slightest
consideration. Leave him, Grace, and come to me.

"