ve been very good to Shiel--you two kind people," she said, and
there came a sudden faint mist to her eyes.

That was her lucky moment, and she spoke as she did just in time, for
Kitty was beginning to resent her deeply; to dislike her far more than
was reasonable, and certainly without any justice.

Kitty spoke up quickly. "Well, you see, he was always kind and good to
other people, and that was why--"

"But that Mr. Burlingame did not like him?" The wife had a strange
intuition regarding Mr. Burlingame. She was sure that there was a woman
in the case--the girl beside her?

"That was because Mr. Burlingame was not kind or good to other people,"
was Kitty's sedate response. There was an undertone of reflection in the
voice which did not escape Mrs. Crozier's senses, and it also caught the
ear of the Young Doctor, to whom there came a sudden revelation of the
reason why Burlingame had left Mrs. Tynan's house.

"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs. Crozier enigmatically. Presently, with suppressed
excitement as she saw the Young Doctor reining in the horses slowly, she
added: "My husband--when have you arranged that I should see him?"

"When he gets back--home," Kitty replied, with an accent on the last
word.

Mrs. Crozier started visibly. "When he gets back home-back from where?
He is not here?" she asked in a tone of chagrin. She had come a long
way, and she had pictured this meeting at the end of the journey with
a hundred variations, but never with this one--that she should not see
Shiel at once when the journey was over, if he was alive. Was it hurt
pride or disappointed love which spoke in her face, in her words? After
all, it was bad enough that her private life and affairs should be
dragged out in a court of law; that these two kind strangers, whom she
had never seen till a few minutes ago, should be in the inner circle
of knowledge of the life of her husband and herself, without her
self-esteem being hurt like this. She was very woman, and the look
of the thing was not nice to her eyes, while it must belittle her in
theirs. Had this girl done it on purpose? Yet why should she--she who
had so appealed to her to come to him--have sought to humiliate her?

Kitty was not quite sure what she ought to say. "You see, we expected
him back before this. He is very exact!"

"Very exact?" asked Mrs. Crozier in astonishment. This was a new phase
of Shiel Crozier's character. He must, indeed, have changed since he had
caused her so m