no small annoyance. Hilda's behavior
about Judy, her fit of sudden passion, above all the relinquishing of
her engagement ring, had cut him to the quick. He was proud, sensitive,
and jealous; when, therefore, he could smile at Judy and chat in light
and pleasant tones to his wife, when he could remark on the furniture in
the spare room, and make many suggestions for the comfort of the little
sister-in-law whom he detested, he was under the impression that his
conduct was not only exemplary but Christian.

It was true that he went out a good deal in the evenings, not taking
Hilda with him as had been his original intention, but leaving her at
home to enjoy the society of the child who had brought the first cloud
into his home.

"I am going to dine out to-night, Hilda," he would say. "A man I know
particularly well has asked me. Afterward he and I may go to the theater
together. You won't mind of course being left, as you have Judy with
you?"

"Oh, no, dear!" she replied, on the first of these occasions; and when
Jasper came to say something of this sort two or three times a week,
Hilda's invariable gentle answer was always that she did not mind.

Jasper was kind--kindness itself, and if she did feel just a trifle
afraid of him, and if she could not help knowing all over her heart that
the sun did not shine now for her, that there was a cloud between her
husband and herself, which she could neither brush away nor penetrate,
she made no outward sign of being anything different from the cheery and
affectionate Hilda of old. There were subjects now, however, which she
shrank from touching on in Jasper's presence. One of them was her
engagement ring, another the furniture in Judy's room. That ring she had
been told by more than one connoisseur was worth at least fifty pounds,
and Hilda was certain that the simple furniture which made Judy's
little room so bower-like and youthful could not have cost anything
approaching that sum. Still Jasper said nothing about giving her change
out of the money which he had spent, and Hilda feared to broach the
subject of the ring to him. Another topic which by a sort of instinct
she refrained from was Judy herself. When Jasper was in the house Hilda
was always glad when Judy retired to her own room. When the gay little
voice, happy now, and clear and sweet as a lark's, was heard singing
snatches of gay songs all over the house, if Jasper were there, Hilda
would carefully close the door o