rather a woman came right out plainly with what was in her mind. Then you can meet her with logic.

“That’s agreeable to me,” I rejoined, and went to the club.

I have not mentioned Gerald Rolf. He was a good-natured sort of boy—at least I considered him so at that time—a year or so older than Ruth. He was an artist, painted weird-looking landscapes, and to make his living, did magazine illustrating. When Ruth first introduced him to me I thought he was a nice enough boy, except that his interminable piano-playing was a nuisance.

I was soon undeceived about Gerald Rolf, soon made to realize how uncertain is happiness and how even the most innocent circumstances may become a menace to a married man so easy-going, so tolerant as I.

Ruth seemed to like Rolf immensely, although why I could not imagine. I had one or two long talks with him. He knew nothing about business—indeed even the simplest things seemed quite beyond his mental capacity.

I tried to get him to discuss poker—he said he played it a little. But the mathematical laws of chance that govern the game he did not grasp at all.

“I’m afraid you’ve got me out of my depth, Durrant,” he said, and laughed.

Then he wanted me to play a game of chess, which I cannot conceive any rational-minded person being interested in.

Gerald Rolf came to our home frequently after that, often on the evenings I was out. I should have objected to this; but I did not. I admit this fault freely. I saw their intimacy growing, but I was so trustful, so confident of Ruth, I did nothing to prevent it.

He was teaching her chess, he said. And she sang a little to his piano accompaniment, weird sort of songs—nothing bright or lively of the kind I liked. And they went to the opera together sometimes—“in the gallery,” as he laughingly told me, for like all artists he had no money. Then later, they took to horseback riding. But this was expensive, and they rode infrequently.

I saw all this going on, as I have said, and I did nothing to prevent it. I suppose because Ruth, curiously enough, seemed to enjoy such things, and her happiness was always uppermost in my mind. It was for the attainment of that I was working so hard—to be able, some day, to give her the things that really would make her happy.

Then, when 

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