"Honest to God, I forget it myself," he asserted devoutly. "How can a
man be always thinking to tell everyone he meets that he's still in a
legal tie-up, when the only way he can remember it himself is by coming
across his marriage certificate, now and then? Why, it's a good ten
years since me and that woman parted. You don't call that married?"

His positive personality exerted its usual influence over Mrs. Gallito.
"'Course not," she agreed, although she still sat with downcast eyes and
pleated her dress.

"I'm a pretty lonely man," pathos in his voice, "and I'd kind of gotten
into the way of putting home and happiness and all like that away from
me; and then I came here and saw Pearl," he was sincere enough now, "and
honest, Mrs. Gallito, it was all up with me then, right from the first
minute, and I was so plumb crazy about her that I guess I lost my head.
I knew all the time that I ought to tell you and her just how I was
fixed, I knew it, but, someways, try as I would, I couldn't. I didn't
have the nerve, so I just waited and let the cards fall as they would.
Maybe I was a fool and a coward. The way things have turned out, it sure
looks like I was, but I just couldn't help it."

"I guess you ain't any different from most men," she answered, weakly
sympathetic, "but you see Pearl has her notions, and they're mighty
strong ones. It's the way she's been brought up," this with some pride.
"You see, me and her pop started out with the idea that we wasn't going
to have the Pearl live one of those hand to mouth lives that we'd seen
girls in the circus that didn't have much training or much ability live.
We saw right from the first that she was awful smart and awful pretty,
and her Pop he had the knack of making money and holding on to it. Well,