have any childlike timidity, and she also had just
confidence in her skulking and running powers. "After all, he don't
want nothin' of me and won't hurt me," she reasoned. "He acts mighty
queer though and I'm goin' to hear what he says."

The moment he passed the angle of the house she dodged around to its
rear and stole into the dairy room, being well aware that from this
position she could overhear words spoken in ordinary conversational
tones in the apartment above. She had barely gained her ambush when she
heard Alida half shriek, "Henry Ferguson!"

It was indeed the man who had deceived her that had stolen upon her
solitude. His somewhat stealthy approach had been due to the wish and
expectation of finding her alone, and he had about convinced himself
that she was so by exploring the barn and observing the absence of the
horses and wagon. Cunning and unscrupulous, it was his plan to appear
before the woman who had thought herself his wife, without any warning
whatever, believing that in the tumult of her surprise and shock she
would be off her guard and that her old affection would reassert
itself. He passed through the kitchen to the parlor door. Alida, in
her deep, painful abstraction, did not hear him until he stood in the
doorway, and, with outstretched arms, breathed her name. Then, as if
struck a blow, she had sprung to her feet, half shrieked his name and
stood panting, regarding him as if he were a specter.

"Your surprise is natural, Alida, dear," he said gently, "but I've a
right to come to you, for my wife is dead," and he advanced toward her.

"Stand back!" she cried sternly. "You've no right, and never can have."

"Oh, yes, I have!" he replied in a wheedling tone. "Come, come! Your
nerves are shaken. Sit down, for I've much to tell you."

"No, I won't sit down, and I tell you to leave me instantly. You've no
right here and I no right to listen to you."

"I can soon prove that you have a better right to listen to me than to
anyone else. Were we not married by a minister?"

"Yes, but that made no difference. You deceived both him and me."

"It made no difference, perhaps, in the eye of the law, while that
woman you saw was living, but she's dead, as I can easily prove. How
were you married to this man Holcroft?"

Alida grew dizzy; everything whirled and grew black before her eyes as
she sank into a chair. He came to her and took her hand, but his touch
was a most effectual restorati