nly to a perception again of the grim walls about him,
and of his helplessness and, maybe, hopelessness. Harlson left the
mantel against which he bad been leaning, and walked about the room for
a moment or two before speaking.

"It's true," he said, "I am certainly a married man. The law allows
it, and the court awards it, as things are in this society, bound by
the tapes of Justice Shallow and the rest. I entered into a contract
which was a mistake on the part of two people. They discovered their
error, and rectified it as far as they could. Had they been two men or
two women who had gone into ordinary business together, and
subsequently discovered they were not fitted for a partnership, the law
would have assisted cheerfully in their absolute separation. But with
this, the gravest of all contracts, the one most affecting human
welfare, no such kindness of the statutes may exist. Some of the
churches say the contract is a sacrament, though the shepherd kings,
whose story is our Bible, had no such thought, nor was it taught by the
lowly Nazarene; but the law supports the legend, within certain limits.
What are we going to do about it?"

I told him that I didn't know, and there were several thousand
people--good people--in the city facing the same conundrum.

I called attention to the fact that the conventional band was a strong
one at this time, and could not be burst without a penalty, even by the
shrewdest. The dwarfs were so many that, united, they were stronger
than any Gulliver. And I added that, in my opinion, as a mere layman,
he was very well off; that he had been at least relieved of the great,
continued trouble which follows a mismating, and that it would be time
enough for him to chafe at the light chain still restraining him, when
he was sure he wanted to replace it by another.

"It's not your fashion," I said, "to fret over the morrow, and it is my
personal and profound conviction that you have no more real idea of
marrying again than you have of volunteering in the service of the
Akhoond of Swat--if there be an Akhoond of Swat at present. You're
only wandering mentally to-night, my boy, dreaming, because this wisp
of a young woman of whom you have been telling has turned your brain
for the time. You'll be wiser in the morning."

All this I said with much lofty arrogance, and a great assumption of
knowing all, and of being a competent adviser of a friend in trouble,
but, at heart, I knew tha