"It's the way I talk to him," rejoined the girl.

It was a position for which Mr. Letts was totally unprepared, and the
satisfied smile of Mr. Widden as he took the vacant place by no means
improved matters. In a state of considerable dismay Mr. Letts dropped
farther and farther behind until, looking up, he saw Miss Foster,
attended by her restive escort, quietly waiting for him. An odd look in
her eyes as they met his gave him food for thought for the rest of the
evening.

At the end of what Mr. Letts was pleased to term a month's trial, Mr.
Widden was still unable to satisfy him as to his fitness for the position
of brother-in-law. In a spirit of gloom he made suggestions of a
mutinous nature to Mr. Green, but that gentleman, who had returned one
day pale and furious, but tamed, from an interview that related to his
treatment of his wife, held out no hopes of assistance.

"I wash my hands of him," he said bitterly. "You stick to it; that's
all you can do."

"They lost me last night," said the unfortunate. "I stayed behind just
to take a stone out of my shoe, and the earth seemed to swallow them up.
He's so strong. That's the worst of it."

"Strong?" said Mr. Green.

Mr. Widden nodded. "Tuesday evening he showed her how he upset a man
once and stood him on his head," he said, irritably. "I was what he
showed her with."