"I think you were very egotistical for a
while, Brainard, and that is a fact. And
you didn't appreciate how much her nature
demanded. But I do not think you are re-
sponsible for your wife's present condition.
If there is any comfort in that statement,
you are welcome to it."

"But you don't mean --" he got no
further.

"I mean that your wife may have her
reservations, just as we all have, and I am
paying her high praise when I say it. You
are not so narrow, Leroy, as to suppose for
a moment that the only sort of passion a
woman is capable of is that which she enter-
tains for a man. How do I know what
is going on in your wife's soul? But it is
nothing which even an idealist of women,
such as I am, old fellow, need regret."

How glad I was afterward that I spoke
those words. They exercised a little re-
straint, perhaps, on Leroy when the day
of his terrible trial came. They made him
wrestle with the demon of suspicion that
strove to possess him. I was sitting in my
office, lagging dispiritedly over my work
one day, when the door burst open and