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 'Why, that something really dreadful had happened,' she laughed.

No, she didn't suspect yet. She couldn't and laugh.

'Losing your job isn't a crime, you know,' she went on lightly. 'We'll find another job somewhere. Perhaps we'll go to another city, to entirely new surroundings far away from here.'

'I'd like to go very far away from here,' said Felix. The farther away from his crime, the better.

'So would I,' she agreed instantly. The farther away from her temptation, the better. 'Why,' she went on, 'it may be the best thing that could have happened. Come, don't feel badly. Please.'

He didn't deserve such kindness. A man like him, who cheated—who stole.

'I'm sorry I've messed your life all up,' he murmured.

She patted his shoulder. 'You haven't! You haven't!' she denied.

She didn't deserve such devotion. A woman like her—unfaithful in everything but act.

They sat silently for a minute each with a buried secret.

'He must never know,' thought Sheilah.

'She must never know,' thought Felix.