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Rh self into a hole he must take the consequences; that she had always hated his gambling in Wall Street, and had warned him that he would fail sooner or later; and it might as well come now while her private fortune was sufficient for all their future needs. He swore that he would not live on her money; and she asked him sneeringly what he was going to do about it. She resented the slurs cast upon her first husband; and Mr. Lorne was furious at her ridicule of his lack of judgment in playing the market

"A violent quarrel ensued in which he cursed himself for marrying a selfish, self-willed woman who had been spoiled all her life, and vowed that he would find some way to regain independent control of his own property. He asserted in no uncertain terms that she wanted him to fail, in order to place him under further obligations and make him a slave to her slightest whim, and that he—he would see her dead first."

The girl's voice had sunk lower and lower until the final words came in a mere whisper, and she shuddered as if shrinking from their very utterance.

"Did Mrs. Lorne still refuse?*' Odell asked.

"Yes; and he left in a towering rage, while she merely laughed at him in a tantalizing way. Aside from the question, which was none of my affair, I must confess that I felt a certain amount of sympathy for Mr. Lorne at the moment. Mrs. Lorne was a very beautiful woman, but her disposition was not an easy one with which to get along; and I had already experienced her almost maniacal outbursts of temper over the merest trivialities.

"However, when I returned to the sick-room after dinner that evening I found him again with her, and they seemed