CHAPTER IV

A RED HEAD


"Marriage," said James Macauley, looking thoughtfully into his coffee
cup, as he sat opposite his wife, Martha, at the breakfast-table, "is
supposed to change a man radically. The influence of a good and lovely
woman can hardly be overestimated. But the question is, can the temper
of a red-headed explosive ever be rendered uninflammable?"

"What are you talking about?" Martha inquired, with interest. "Ellen and
Red? Red _is_ changed. I never saw him so dear and tractable."

"Dear and tractable, is he? Have you happened to encounter him in the
last twenty-four hours?"

"No. What's the matter? He and Ellen can't possibly have had
any--misunderstanding? And if they had, they wouldn't tell you about it."

"Well, they may not have had a misunderstanding, but if Ellen succeeds in
understanding him through the present crisis she'll prove herself a
remarkable woman. As near as I can make it out, Red is mad, fighting mad,
clear through, with somebody or something, and he can no more disguise
it than he ever could. I don't suppose it's with anybody at home, of
course, but it makes him anything but an angel, there or anywhere else."