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tell you the rest on the way over."
"I'll be with you in a second," she called, running up-stairs.
When Mary was snuggled down beside me in the car--and she does snuggle the best of any girl I ever knew--I told her everything, not forgetting the part where I wrenched the gun away from Woods.
"Goodness, Bupps! I bet you were scared," she commented, her eyes twinkling.
"Frankly, I didn't know what I was doing, or I would never have had the nerve," I laughed. "But, lord! I feel sorry for Jim."
Mary's face clouded over.
"So do I, Bupps, but any one could have seen it coming. Jim was too good to her. As much as I like Helen, I will say that the only kind of husband she deserves is a brute who would beat her. That's the only kind she can love. I was with her the night before her wedding, and she confessed then that if Jim were only cruel or indifferent to her, just once, she thought she could love him to death. The only reason Helen cares for you and me, was because we never paid any particular attention to her when she acted up and pouted. That is why she is mad about Frank Woods. When he came to Eastbrook, he treated her as though she didn't exist."
"And if Jim were cruel to her now, do you think she would go back to him?" I asked.
Mary shook her head. "No, it's different now. If Jim were cruel to her, she would probably hate him all the more for it."
"Proving the incomprehensibility of woman," I jeered.
"Proving the flumdability of flapdoodle," Mary responded. "If you men only put one little thought into giving a woman what she wants, instead of giving her what you think she ought to want; if you kept as up-to-date in your love-making as you do in your law practise, women wouldn't be the incomprehensible riddle you always make them out to be."
"Well, why don't you tell us what you want?" I asked.
"Silly! That would spoil it all, don't you see? Besides we aren't sure just what we want ourselves."
My spirits, which had risen considerably during our conversation, dropped with a slump when Jim's big house loomed up ahead. Already, something of the unhappiness within seemed to have added a more somber touch to the outside. Have you noticed how you can tell from the face of a house what kind of life the inhabitants lead? Happiness or misery, health or sickness, riches or poverty all show as though the walls were saturated from the admixture of life within.
I sent Mary up-stairs to see Helen, while I went into the drawing-room in search of Jim, but there was no one there except Wicks, the butler, who was lighting a fire, for, though it was only the last of September, the nights were chilly. I snatched up the evening paper to see if by any chance a hint of the scandal had crept into print. I felt sure that, as matters stood, they would not dare to put in anything definite, but The Sun has a nasty way of writing all around a scandal, so that, while the persons involved are readily recognized, they are quite helpless as far as redress is concerned.
I noticed that Wicks had taken an infernally long time to start the fire. Although it was burning merrily, he still puttered about, brushing up the chips and rearranging the blower and tongs. When Wicks hangs about he usually has a question on his mind that he wants answered, and he takes that means of letting you know it. I decided not to notice him but to force him to come out in the open and ask, for once, a straightforward question. From the fire, he moved to the table and straightened the magazines and books, glancing now and then in my direction, trying to catch my eye, but I buried myself more deeply than ever in the paper. When he finally stepped back of my chair, human nature could stand his puttering no longer, so I laid down The Sun, and turned to him.
"Well, Wicks, what do you want?" I snapped.
Wicks looked at me with the expression of a small boy caught sticky-handed in the jam-closet.
"Nothing, sir!--that is--er--nothing." He turned and started from the room.
"Come here, Wicks!" I called. "I know when you hang around a room unnecessarily, as you have been doing for the last ten minutes, that you have something on your mind. Now, out with it."
"I was merely going to arsk, sir, hif I 'ad better begin lookin' arfter another place, sir?"
That was an extraordinary question. Wicks had been with the Feldersons ever since they were married.
"What put that idea into your head, Wicks?"
He was far more confused than I had ever