as is fair and square. I kem here to say them. They're about Jinny, my
gal."

Ashe's grave face brightened, to Mr. McClosky's evident discomposure.

"Maybe I should have said about her mother; but, the same bein' a
stranger to you, I says naterally, 'Jinny.'"

Ashe nodded courteously. Mr. McClosky, with his eyes on his valise, went
on,--

"It is sixteen year ago as I married Mrs. McClosky in the State of
Missouri. She let on, at the time, to be a widder,--a widder with one
child. When I say let on, I mean to imply that I subsekently found out
that she was not a widder, nor a wife; and the father of the child was,
so to speak, onbeknowst. Thet child was Jinny--my gal."

With his eyes on his valise, and quietly ignoring the wholly-crimsoned
face and swiftly-darkening brow of his host, he continued,--

"Many little things sorter tended to make our home in Missouri
onpleasant. A disposition to smash furniture, and heave knives around;
an inclination to howl when drunk, and that frequent; a habitooal use of
vulgar language, and a tendency to cuss the casooal visitor,--seemed to
pint," added Mr. McClosky with submissive hesitation "that--she--was--so
to speak--quite onsuited to the marriage relation in its holiest
aspeck."

"Damnation! Why didn't"--burst out John Ashe, erect and furious.