golden hair; introduced to her by a friend; nice, simple little thing;
mind and heart above the irregular stage on to which she had been driven
by poverty alone; father dead; mother in reduced circumstances. "To keep
the home together, poor Sissie decided--"

"Precisely so," I murmured, knocking off my ash. "The usual
self-sacrifice! Case quite normal! Everything en regle!"

"You don't mean to say you doubt it?" he cried, flushing up, and
evidently regarding me as a hopeless cynic. "I do assure you, Dr.
Cumberledge, the poor child--though miles, of course, below Miss
Tepping's level--is as innocent, and as good--"

"As a flower in May. Oh, yes; I don't doubt it. How did you come to
propose to her, though?"

He reddened a little. "Well, it was almost accidental," he said,
sheepishly. "I called there one evening, and her mother had a headache
and went up to bed. And when we two were left alone, Sissie talked a
great deal about her future and how hard her life was. And after a while
she broke down and began to cry. And then--"

I cut him short with a wave of my hand. "You need say no more," I put
in, with a sympathetic face. "We have all been there."

We paused a moment, while I puffed smoke at the photograph again.
"Well," I said at last, "her face looks to me really simple and nice. It
is a good face. Do you see her often?"

"Oh, no; she's on tour."