When a Man Marries | Page 9

I don't know particularly why every one thinks I should be the victim
for the sacrifice. But if you will promise to get her off early to her train,
and if you will stand by me and not leave me alone with her, I--I might
try it."
"Of course, we'll stand by you!" they said in chorus. "We won't let you

stick!" And Dal said, "You're the right sort of girl, Kit. And after it's all
over, you'll realize that it's the biggest kind of lark. Think how you are
saving the old lady's feeling! When you are an elderly person yourself,
Kit, you will appreciate what you are doing tonight."
Yes, they said they would stand by me, and that I was a heroine and the
only person there clever enough to act the part, and that they wouldn't
let me stick! I am not bitter now, but that is what they promised. Oh, I
am not defending myself; I suppose I deserved everything that
happened. But they told me that she would be there only between trains,
and that she was deaf, and that I had an opportunity to save a
fellow-being from ruin. So in the end I capitulated.
When they opened the door into the living room, Max Reed had arrived
and was helping to hide a decanter and glasses, and somebody said a
cab was at the door.
And that was the way it began.
Chapter III.
I MIGHT HAVE KNOWN IT
The minute I had consented I regretted it. After all, what were Jimmy's
troubles to me? Why should I help him impose on an unsuspecting
elderly woman? And it was only putting off discovery anyhow. Sooner
or later, she would learn of the divorce, and--Just at that instant my
eyes fell on Mr. Harbison--Tom Harbison, as Anne called him. He was
looking on with an amused, half-puzzled smile, while people were
rushing around hiding the roulette wheel and things of which Miss
Caruthers might disapprove, and Betty Mercer was on her knees
winding up a toy bear that Max had brought her. What would he think?
It was evident that he thought badly of us already--that he was
contemptuously amused, and then to have to ask him to lend himself to
the deception!
With a gasp I hurled myself after Jimmy, only to hear a strange voice in
the hall and to know that I was too late. I was in for it, whatever was

coming. It was Aunt Selina who was coming--along the hall, followed
by Jim, who was mopping his face and trying not to notice the
paralyzed silence in the library.
Aunt Selina met me in the doorway. To my frantic eyes she seemed to
tower above us by at least a foot, and beside her Jimmy was a red,
perspiring cherub.
"Here she is," Jimmy said, from behind a temporary eclipse of black
cloak and traveling bag. He was on top of the situation now, and he was
mendaciously cheerful. He had NOT said, "Here is my wife." That
would have been a lie. No, Jimmy merely said, "Here she is." If Aunt
Selina chose to think me Bella, was it not her responsibility? And if I
chose to accept the situation, was it not mine? Dallas Brown came
forward gravely as Aunt Selina folded over and kissed me, and
surreptitiously patted me with one hand while he held out the other to
Miss Caruthers. I loathed him!
"We always expect something unusual from James, Miss Caruthers," he
said, with his best manner, "but THIS--this is beyond our wildest
dreams."
Well, it's too awful to linger over. Anne took her upstairs and into
Bella's bedroom. It was a fancy of Jim's to leave that room just as Bella
had left it, dusty dance cards and favors hanging around and a pair of
discarded slippers under the bed. I don't think it had been swept since
Bella left it. I believe in sentiment, but I like it brushed and dusted and
the cobwebs off of it, and when Aunt Selina put down her bonnet, it
stirred up a gray-white cloud that made her cough. She did not say
anything, but she looked around the room grimly, and I saw her run her
finger over the back of a chair before she let Hannah, the maid, put her
cloak on it.
Anne looked frightened. She ran into Bella's bath and wet the end of a
towel and when Hannah was changing Aunt Selina's collar--her
concession to evening dress--Anne wiped off the obvious places on the
furniture. She did it stealthily, but Aunt Selina saw her in the glass.

"What's that young woman's name?" she asked me sharply, when Anne
had taken the towel out to hide it.
"Anne Brown, Mrs. Dallas Brown," I replied