exacting for her, if it meant that she should never be commonly
friendly with any other man.


* * * * *


Challis looked at her steadily for a few moments, trying to smother the
wild flood of black suspicion aroused in him by the discovery of the
letter, and confirmed by her sneering words, and then said quietly, but
with a dangerous inflection in his voice--

"Remember--you are my wife. If you have no regard for your own
reputation, you shall have some for mine. I don't want to entertain my
friends by thrashing R----, but I'm not such a fool as you think. And
if you go further in this direction you'll find me a bit of a brute."

Again the sneering laugh--"Indeed! Something very tragic will occur, I
suppose?"

"No," said Challis grimly, "something damned prosaic--common enough
among men with pretty wives--I'll clear out."

"I wish you would do that now," said his wife, "I hate you quite
enough."

Of course she didn't quite mean it. She really liked Challis in her own
small-souled way--principally because his money had given her the
social pleasures denied her during her girlhood. With an unmoved face
and without farewell he left her and went to his lawyer's.