ct of release unless you--"

"Oh, I'll do something," was Gerridge's bland reply. "But first I must
have a few more facts. A man such as you describe should be easy to find;
easier than the lady. Is he a tall man?"

"Unusually so."

"Dark or light?"

"Dark."

"Any beard?"

"None. That's why the injury to his jaw shows so plainly."

"I see. Is he what you would call a gentleman?"

"Yes, I must acknowledge that. He shows the manners of good society, if
he did whisper words into my wife's ear which were not meant for mine."

"And Mr. Fulton knows nothing of him?"

"Nothing."

"Well, we'll drop him for the present. You have a photograph of your
wife?"

"Her picture was in all the papers to-night."

"I noticed. But can we go by it? Does it resemble her?"

"Only fairly. She is far prettier. My wife is something uncommon. No
picture ever does her justice."

"She looks like a dark beauty. Is her hair black or brown?"

"Black. So black it has purple shades in it."

"And her eyes? Black too?"

"No, gray. A deep gray, which look black owing to her long lashes."

"Very good. Now about her dress. Describe it as minutely as you can. It
was a bride's traveling costume, I suppose."

"Yes. That is, I presume so. I know that it was all right and suitable to
the occasion, but I don't remember much about it. I was thinking too much
of the woman in the gown to notice the gown itself."

"Cannot you tell the color?"

"It was a dark one. I'm sure it was a dark one, but colors are not much
in my line. I know she looked well--they can tell you about it at the
house. All that I distinctly remember is the veil she had wound so
tightly around her face and hat to keep the rice out of her hair that
I could not get one glimpse of her features. All nonsense that veil,
especially when I had promised not to address her or even to touch her
in the cab. And she wore it into the office. If it had not been for that
I might have foreseen her intention in time to prevent it."

"Perhaps she knew that."

"It looks as if she did."

"Which means that she was meditating flight from the first."

"From the time she saw that man," Mr. Ransom corrected.

"Just so; from the time she left her uncle's house. Your wife is a woman
of means, I believe."

"Yes, unfortunately."

"Why unfortunately?"

"It makes her independent and offers a lure to irresponsible wretches
like him."

"Her fortune is large, then?"

"Very large; larger th