The Amateur | Page 7

"she is certainly very much in
love with Harry."
Ford shook his head non-committingly. "I don't know her story," he
said. "Don't want to know it."
The ship was in the channel, on her way to Cherbourg, and running as
smoothly as a clock. From the shore friendly lights told them they were
nearing their journey's end; that the land was on every side. Seated on a
steamer-chair next to his in the semi-darkness of the deck, Mrs. Ashton
began to talk nervously and eagerly.
"Now that we are so near," she murmured, "I have got to tell you
something. If you did not know I would feel I had not been fair. You
might think that when you were doing so much for me I should have
been more honest."
She drew a long breath. "It's so hard," she said.
"Wait," commanded Ford. "Is it going to help me to find him?"
"No."
"Then don't tell me."
His tone caused the girl to start. She leaned toward him and peered into
his face. His eyes, as he looked back to her, were kind and
comprehending.
"You mean," said the amateur detective, "that your husband has
deserted you. That if it were not for the baby you would not try to find

him. Is that it?"
Mrs. Ashton breathed quickly and turned her face away.
"Yes," she whispered. "That is it."
There was a long pause. When she faced him again the fact that there
was no longer a secret between them seemed to give her courage.
"Maybe," she said, "you can understand. Maybe you can tell me what it
means. I have thought and thought. I have gone over it and over it until
when I go back to it my head aches. I have done nothing else but think,
and I can't make it seem better. I can't find any excuse. I have had no
one to talk to, no one I could tell. I have thought maybe a man could
understand." She raised her eyes appealingly.
"If you can only make it seem less cruel. Don't you see," she cried
miserably, "I want to believe; I want to forgive him. I want to think he
loves me. Oh! I want so to be able to love him; but how can I? I can't! I
can't!"
In the week in which they had been thrown together the girl
unconsciously had told Ford much about herself and her husband. What
she now told him was but an amplification of what he had guessed.
She had met Ashton a year and a half before, when she had just left
school at the convent and had returned to live with her family. Her
home was at Far Rockaway. Her father was a cashier in a bank at Long
Island City. One night, with a party of friends, she had been taken to a
dance at one of the beach hotels, and there met Ashton. At that time he
was one of a firm that was making book at the Aqueduct race-track.
The girl had met very few men and with them was shy and frightened,
but with Ashton she found herself at once at ease. That night he drove
her and her friends home in his touring-car and the next day they teased
her about her conquest. It made her very happy. After that she went to
hops at the hotel, and as the bookmaker did not dance, the two young
people sat upon the piazza. Then Ashton came to see her at her own
house, but when her father learned that the young man who had been
calling upon her was a bookmaker he told him he could not associate
with his daughter.
But the girl was now deeply in love with Ashton, and apparently he
with her. He begged her to marry him. They knew that to this, partly
from prejudice and partly owing to his position in the bank, her father
would object. Accordingly they agreed that in August, when the racing

moved to Saratoga, they would run away and get married at that place.
Their plan was that Ashton would leave for Saratoga with the other
racing men, and that she would join him the next day.
They had arranged to be married by a magistrate, and Ashton had
shown her a letter from one at Saratoga who consented to perform the
ceremony. He had given her an engagement ring and two thousand
dollars, which he asked her to keep for him, lest tempted at the track he
should lose it.
But she assured Ford it was not such material things as a letter, a ring,
or gift of money that had led her to trust Ashton. His fear of losing her,
his complete subjection to her wishes, his