ied off at a faint call from the girl's room, and when
she came again she sat down to a long discussion of the situation with
her husband, while she slowly took down her hair and prepared it for
the night. Her conclusion, which she made her husband's, was that it
was most fortunate they should be sailing so soon, and that it was the
greatest pity they were not sailing in the morning. She wished him to
sleep, whether she slept herself or not, and she put the most hopeful
face possible upon the matter. "One thing you can rest assured of,
Rufus, and that is that it's all over with Ellen. She may never speak to
you about him, and you mustn't ever mention him, but she feels just as
you could wish. Does that satisfy you? Some time I will tell you all she
says."

"I don't care to hear," said Kenton. "All I want is for him to keep away
from me. I think if he spoke to me I should kill him."

"Rufus!"

"I can't help it, Sarah. I feel outraged to the bottom of my soul. I
could kill him."

Mrs. Kenton turned her head and looked steadfastly at him over her
shoulder. "If you strike him, if you touch him, Mr. Kenton, you will
undo everything that the abominable wretch has done for Ellen, and you
will close my mouth and tie my hands. Will you promise that under no
provocation whatever will you do him the least harm? I know Ellen better
than you do, and I know that you will make her hate you unless--"

"Oh, I will promise. You needn't be afraid. Lord help me!" Kenton
groaned. "I won't touch him. But don't expect me to speak to him."

"No, I don't expect that. He won't offer to speak to you."

They slept, and in the morning she stayed to breakfast with Ellen
in their apartment, and let her husband go down with their younger
children. She could trust him now, whatever form his further trial
should take, and he felt that he was pledging himself to her anew, when
Bittridge came hilariously to meet him in the reading-room, where he
went for a paper after breakfast.

"Ah, judge!" said the young man, gayly. "Hello, Boyne!" he added to the
boy, who had come with his father; Lottie had gone directly up-stairs
from the breakfast-room. "I hope you're all well this morning? Play not
too much for Miss Ellen?"

Kenton looked him in the face without answering, and then tried to get
away from him, but Bittridge followed him up, talking, and ignoring his
silence.

"It was a splendid piece, judge. You must take Mrs. Kenton. I know
you'll bot