ives. Within a week he had disgusted her to such an extent that she
almost repented of the bargain. Within a year, he had tired of her and
was openly unfaithful in every port upon the lakes, a vigorous, lawless
debauchee. His ship-building was done in a distant port, and he rarely
visited his wife. He rather feared her, mastiff as he was, for here
was the keener intelligence, and her moods, at times, were desperate as
his. So he furnished her abundant income and was content to let it go
at that. It pleased her, also, to have it that way.

Harlson thought of the woman, and wondered somewhat. Black-haired,
black-eyed, white-skinned, deep of bust and with a graceful and
powerful swing of movement, she was a woman, physically considered, not
of the common herd. She was a lioness, yet not quite the grand lioness
of the desert. She lacked somewhat of dignity and grandeur of
countenance, and had more of alertness and of craft. She was, though
dark, more like the tawny beast of the Rocky Mountains, the California
lion, as that great cougar is called, supple, full of moods and
passion, and largely cat-like. She had filled his eye casually. Why
had she sent him the tie, the silken thing in green and gold?

He thought and pulled his long limbs together and rose till he was
sitting, and decided that it was but courteous, but his duty as a
gentleman, to wander over to her house and thank her for her
remembrance of him. It was but an expression of good will toward the
family generally, this little act of hers; he knew that, but it was a
personal matter, after all, and he should thank her. It was well to be
thoughtful, to attend to the small amenities, and it took him more than
the usual time to dress. His apparently careless summer garb required
the adjustment of an expert here and there. He was an hour in the
doing of it. When he emerged he was not, taken in a comprehensive way,
bad-looking. He was clear-faced, strong-featured and of stalwart build.

The ordinary man he would not have feared in any meeting; of the woman
he was about to meet he had some apprehension. He knew her quality,
but--she had worked for him a tie! He went up the broad path to the
doorway, between flowers and trees and shrubbery. It was three o'clock
in the afternoon, and he would find her alone, he thought, for chances
of calls are not so great in the smaller towns as in the cities; there
is an average to be maintained, and Mrs. Jones or