nts to that. And yet she made a curious
impression on me. You know how it is, Comly! A man may love his wife
with all his heart and soul and he may mean to be awfully square with
her; and yet there may be a face or a voice now and then that will,
well, you know, make him wobble a little. I did think about that girl a
lot; it was damned funny how I thought of her. She'd pop up in my mind
when I had absolutely willed that I would never think of her again. And
yet the more I resolved to get her out of my mind the more stubbornly
she'd keep coming into my thoughts.

"I suppose in a way it was my pride; I hated to think that a girl as
pretty and clever and attractive as she is thought me a contemptible,
slinking coward. We all want to be heroes to women; it's one of the
damned weaknesses of our sex, Comly. I'd ceased to be a hero to my wife,
who's the gentlest and most long suffering woman alive, but this other
woman rather gave me hope that I might qualify for the finals in _her_
eyes. Now, Comly, I see that you're a steady-going fellow; never thrown
off your balance; not a chap to be made a fool of by a girl who amuses
herself at your expense at a dinner party. I wish you'd tell me frankly
just what you think of this?"

"I'd say," replied Archie, attempting to meet this demand with a
philosophic air, "I'd say that the girl probably played the game on
every man she thought she could impose on. Merely a part of her social
technique; a stunt, so to speak, which she'd found would make us weak
males sit up and take notice. If I were you I'd clean forget the whole
business; on the other hand there's the suspicion that you appealed to
her strongly, a girlish fancy, perhaps, and she thought you were the
sort of fellow that would be hit harder if she roused you to action. I
tell you, Congdon, women are curious creatures. Just when you think
you've got your hand on a pretty bird she flutters away and sings
merrily in another part of the wood."

"Right!" ejaculated Congdon. "By George, that expresses it exactly!"

"About your child, up there in Michigan," said Archie, pleased that he
was scoring as a man of wisdom, "it's wholly possible that your wife
sent you the wire as an approach to a reconciliation."

"Oh, Lord, no! You don't know my wife, Comly. You see I got answers to
the telegrams father sent her in my name and she hit right back at me!
Don't you believe that she's coaxing me to come back to her. And here's
the message