necessarily was of the exigencies of such a campaign, I knew that
not only his own ambition, but the hopes of his party, depended
on the speeches he had been booked to make in all parts of the
state. And now, three weeks before election, while every
opposing force was coming to the surface, this trouble had come
upon him. A mystery in his home and threatened death in his
heart! For he loved his wife--that was apparent to me from the
first; loved her to idolatry, as such men sometimes do love,--
often to their own undoing.

All this, the thought of an instant. Meanwhile he had been
studying me well.

"You understand my position," he commented. "Wednesday night I
speak in C---, Thursday, in R---, while she--" With an effort he
pulled himself together. "Miss--"

"Saunders," I put in.

"Miss Saunders, I can not leave her alone in the house. Some one
must be there to guard and watch--"

"Has she no mother?" I suggested in the pause he made.

"She has no living relatives, and mine are uncongenial to her."

This to save another question. I understood him perfectly.

"I can not ask any of them to stay with her," he pursued
decisively. "She would not consent to it. Nor can I ask any of