"Once, just before she died."

"Describe her, Bingle."

"I can't. Good Lord, man, my eyes were blind with tears all the time I
was--"

"Never mind," broke in Force. "We won't go into that, after all. Did
she tell you anything about herself, her past life, her--her trouble?"

"Not a word. She was just about to enter the future life, Force. She
hadn't much to say. Simply said that she hoped I'd be good to her
little baby, that's all. Go on, man."

Mr. Force appeared to be lost in bleak abstraction. The curt command
brought him out of it with a start.

"She went by the name of Mrs. Hinman, you say. No other name was
mentioned, then or afterwards?"

"No."

"I can tell you something about her, Bingle. She lived for three years
as the wife of a man who called himself Hinman. She wasn't his wife
and that wasn't his name. She'd been on the stage. She went to live
with this man as his wife. She was a good girl up to the time she met
this man and fell in love with him. Her home was in the West. Her
parents were respected, God-fearing people. They never knew that she--
that she took up the life she led with--Hinman. Don't interrupt me,