e
corner of his own street that he became interested. She continued on
until within a few doors of his office, when she stopped to give an
order to a tradesman, who was just taking down his shutters. He heard
her voice distinctly; in the quick emotion it gave him he brushed
hurriedly past her without lifting his eyes. Gaining his own doorway
he rushed upstairs to his office, hastily unlocked it, and ran to the
window. The lady was already crossing the street. He saw her pause
before the door of the opposite house, open it with a latchkey, and
caught a full view of her profile in the single moment that she turned
to furl her umbrella and enter. It was his wife's voice he had heard; it
was his wife's face that he had seen in profile.

Yet she was changed from the lanky young schoolgirl he had wedded ten
years ago, or, at least, compared to what his recollection of her had
been. Had he ever seen her as she really was? Surely somewhere in that
timid, freckled, half-grown bride he had known in the first year of
their marriage the germ of this self-possessed, matured woman was
hidden. There was the tone of her voice; he had never recalled it before
as a lover might, yet now it touched him; her profile he certainly
remembered, but not with the feeling it now produced in him. Would he
have ever abandoned her had she been like that? Or had HE changed, and
was this no longer his old self?--perhaps even a self SHE would never
recognize again? James Smith had the superstitions of a gambler, and
that vague idea of fate that comes to weak men; a sudden fright seized
him, and he half withdrew from the window lest she should observe him,
recognize him, and by some act precipitate that fate.

By lingering beyond the usual hour for his departure he saw her again,
and had even a full view of her face as she crossed the street. The
years had certainly improved her; he wondered with a certain nervousness
if she would think they had done the same for him. The complacency with
which he had at first contemplated her probable joy at recovering him
had become seriously shaken since he had seen her; a woman as well
preserved and good-looking as that, holding a certain responsible
and, no doubt, lucrative position, must have many admirers and be
independent. He longed to tell her now of his fortune, and yet shrank
from the test its exposure implied. He waited for her return until
darkness had gathered, and then went back to his lodgings a little