h some relief that I found he had not.

"Professor Kennedy," he began nervously, hitching his chair closer,
without further introduction, in the manner of a man who was accustomed
to having his own way in any matter he undertook, "I am in a most
peculiar situation."

Seabury paused a moment, Kennedy nodded acquiescence, and the man
suddenly blurted out, "I--I don't know whether I'm being slowly poisoned
or not!"

The revelation was startling enough in itself, but doubly so after the
interview that had just preceded.

I covered my own surprise by a quick glance at Craig. His face was
impassive as he narrowly searched Seabury's. I knew, though, that back
of his assumed calm, Craig was doing some rapid thinking about the
ethics of listening to both parties in the case. However, he said
nothing. Indeed, Seabury, once started, hurried on, scarcely giving him
a chance to interrupt.

"I may as well tell you," he proceeded, with the air of a man who for
the first time is relieving his mind of something that has been weighing
heavily on him, "that for some time I have not been exactly--er--easy in
my mind about the actions of my wife."

Evidently he had arrived at the conclusion to tell what worried him, and
must say it, for he continued immediately: "It's not that I actually
know anything about any indiscretions on Agatha's part, but,--well,
there have been little things--hints that she was going frequently to
_thes dansants_, and that sort of thing, you know. Lately, too, I have
seen a change in her manner toward me, I fancy. Sometimes I think she
seems to avoid me, especially during the last few days. Then again, as
this morning, she seems to be--er--too solicitous."

He passed his hand over his forehead, as if to clear it. For once he did
not seem to be the self-confident man who had at first entered our
apartment. I noticed that he had a peculiar look, a feeble state of the
body which he was at times at pains to conceal, a look which the doctors
call, I believe, cachectic.

"I mean," he added hastily, as if it might as well be said first as
last, "that she seems to be much concerned about my health, my food--"

"Just what is it that you actually know, not what you fear?" interrupted
Kennedy, perhaps a little brusquely, at last having seen a chance to
insert a word edgewise into the flow of Seabury's troubles, real or
imaginary.

Seabury paused a moment, then resumed with a description of his health,
which, to t