said, springing into his
buggy and taking up his reins and whip. "Good-by."

She watched him from the gate as he dashed away in the cloud of dust
raised by the hoofs of his trotting horse. She estimated the time it
would take him to reach the station, and dreaded hearing too soon the
whistle of the coming train's locomotive. Fully ten minutes passed
before she heard the whistle. Then she was sure that Joel would get
aboard in time. She was sure, because she knew the man who was serving
her.

That afternoon, rather late, her parents came home. They delivered the
news to her that the court had acted most promptly and she was now no
longer the legal wife of John Trott. She received the information as
stolidly as if it were a foregone verdict and quietly turned from her
harsh-faced parents and went up to her room.

"Not his wife?" She laughed to herself as she sat on her bed and locked
her limp hands in her lap. "As if a lawyer, a judge, and a few jurymen
could take my husband from me as easily as that! Huh! I'd live with him
without marriage if that is all there is to marriage. Joel will see him
to-night. Joel will tell him how I feel, and John will wait till I can
go to him. I know he loves me. I know that, and nothing else
counts--nothing!"

Later she descended the stairs and went into the kitchen where her
mother was at work. "Let me help you, mother," she said, taking the
broom from Mrs. Whaley's hands and beginning to sweep the floor. "You
must have had a lot to do while I was away."

Mrs. Whaley stood surprised for a moment, started to speak, hesitated,
and then went out to where her husband sat in the slanting rays of the
sun under an apple-tree.

"Where is she now?" he asked, glancing up from the open Bible and
manuscript on his knee.

"She's sweeping in the kitchen."

"You don't say!" he said, laconically. "Well, when she is through in
there send her here to me. I've got a straight talk for her. Things
can't rest exactly on the same basis as they used to, as far as she is
concerned. She has got to be on probation-like if she stays on under my
roof. A great deal will depend on her conduct from now on. Folks will be
inclined to slough away from us for a while. Already they blame you and
me, and say we were too eager to marry her off. Nothing like this ever
happened to any member of my church. It is bad in every way, and may be
worse. I'm going to pray that no--no living stigma may follow it. You
know wha