thing,
feeling that she would keep her husband (as she called him) out of the
way if I frightened her by any mysteries. A nice job I had, William,
as you may suppose, when she knew about the bigamy business. What
with screaming, fainting, crying, and blowing me up (as if _I_ was to
blame!), she kept me by that sofa of hers the best part of an hour--kept
me there, in short, till Mr. James Smith himself came back. I leave you
to judge if that mended matters. He found me mopping the poor woman's
temples with scent and water; and he would have pitched me out of the
window, as sure as I sit here, if I had not met him and staggered him at
once with the charge of murder against his wife. That stopped him when
he was in full cry, I can promise you. 'Go and wait in the next room,'
says he, 'and I'll come in and speak to you directly.'"

"And did you go?" I asked.

"Of course I did," said Mr. Dark. "I knew he couldn't get out by the
drawing-room windows, and I knew I could watch the door; so away I went,
leaving him alone with the lady, who didn't spare him by any manner of
means, as I could easily hear in the next room. However, all rows in
this world come to an end sooner or later, and a man with any brains in
his head may do what he pleases with a woman who is fond of him. Before
long I heard her crying and kissing him. 'I can't go home,' she says,
after this. 'You have behaved like a villain and a monster to me--but
oh, Jemmy, I can't give you up to anybody! Don't go back to your wife!
Oh, don't, don't go back to your wife!' 'No fear of that,' says he. 'My
wife wouldn't have me if I did go back to her.' After that I heard the
door open, and went out to meet him on the landing. He began swearing
the moment he saw me, as if that was any good. 'Business first, if
you please, sir,' says I, 'and any pleasure you like, in the way of
swearing, afterward.' With that beginning, I mentioned our terms to him,
and asked the pleasure of his company to Cumberland in return, he was
uncommonly suspicious at first, but I promised to draw out a legal
document (mere waste paper, of no earthly use except to pacify him),
engaging to hold him harmless throughout the proceedings; and what
with that, and telling him of the frightful danger his wife was in, I
managed, at last, to carry my point."

"But did the second wife make no objection to his going away with you?"
I inquired.

"Not she," said Mr. Dark. "I stated the case to her just as it sto