this campaign for me, and I'd better consult with you. Then he turned
me out of his house!"

"You seem to have altered a little since this afternoon." I couldn't
resist that.

"This afternoon!" he shuddered. "I think that was a thousand years
ago!"

"What do you want to see him for?"

"What for? To see if there isn't a little human pity in him for a
fellow-being in agony--to end my suspense and know whether or not he
means to ruin me and my happiness and my home forever!"

Farwell didn't seem to be regarding me so much in the light of a
character as usual; still, one thing puzzled me, and I asked him how
he happened to come to me.

"Because I thought if anyone in the world could do anything with
Gorgett, you'd be the one," he answered. "Because it seemed to me he'd
listen to you, and because I thought--in my wild clutching at the
remotest hope--that he meant to make my humiliation more awful by
sending me to you to ask you to go back to him for me."

"Well, well," I said, "I guess if you want me to be of any use you'll
have to tell me what it's all about."

"I suppose so," he said, and choked, with a kind of despairing sound;
"I don't see any way out of it."