the younger men who had been wrung dry in that
house.

No doubt at all that Ruthven needed the money; he was only a male geisha
for the set that harboured him, anyway--picked up by a big, hard-eyed
woman, who had almost forgotten how to laugh, until she found him
furtively muzzling her diamond-laden fingers. So, when she discovered
that he could sit up and beg and roll over at a nod, she let him follow
her; and since then he had become indispensable and had curled up on
many a soft and silken knee, and had sought and fetched and carried for
many a pretty woman what she herself did not care to touch, even with
white-gloved fingers.

What had she expected when she married him? Only innocent ignorance of
the set he ornamented could account for the horror of her disillusion.
What splendours had she dreamed of from the outside? What flashing and
infernal signal had beckoned her to enter? What mute eyes had promised?
What silent smile invited? All skulls seem to grin; but the world has
yet to hear them laugh.

* * * * *

"Philip?"

"Yes, Alixe."

"I did my best, w-without offending Gerald. Can you believe me?"

"I know you did. . . . Don't mind what I said--"

"N-no, not now. . . . You do believe me, don't you?"

"Yes, I do."

"Thank you. . . . And, Phil, I will try to s-steer straight--because you
ask me."

"You must."

"I will. . . . It is good to be here. . . . I must not come again, must
I?"

"Not again, Alixe."

"On your account?"

"On your own. . . . What do _I_ care?"

"I didn't know. They say--"

"What?" he asked sharply.

"A rumour--I heard it--others speak of it--perhaps to be disagreeable to
me--"

"What have you heard?"

"That--that you might marry again--"

"Well, you can nail that lie," he said hotly.

"Then it is not true?"

"True! Do you think I'd take that chance again even if I felt free to do
it?"

"Free?" she faltered; "but you _are_ free, Phil!"

"I am not," he said fiercely; "no man is free to marry twice under such
conditions. It's a jest at decency and a slap in the face of
civilisation! I'm done for--finished; I had my chance and I failed. Do
you think I consider myself free to try again with the chance of further
bespattering my family?"

"Wait until you really love," she said tremulously.

He laughed incredulously.

"I am glad that it is not true. . . . I am glad," she said. "Oh, Phil!
Phil!--for a single one of the chances we