suspicion of such a feeling against her lawful husband, but it did seem
to her that he was not acting judiciously towards Dick. She hoped to
turn his resentment from their son to herself, and would have welcomed
any outburst directed against her alone. In this excited state, being
brought, as it were, to bay, she had the temerity to say--

"You are wrong about one thing, and you may also be wrong in thinking
Dick--in--in what you think about Dick."

The old man darted one lowering look at her, and though she trembled,
she welcomed the glance as indicating the success of her red herring.

"What was I wrong about?"

"You were wrong--Mr. Hammond knows Dick is a member of the club. He is
a member himself and he insisted Dick should join. That's why he raised
his salary."

"A likely story! Who told you that?"

"Dick told me himself."

"And you believed it, of course!" Saunders laughed in a sneering, cynical
sort of way and resumed his scrutiny of the clock. The old woman gave up
the fight and began to weep silently, hoping, but in vain, to hear the
light step of her son approaching the door. The clock struck the hour;
the old man rose without a word, drew his hat further over his brow,
and left the house.

Up to the last moment Mrs. Saunders hardly believed her husband would