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 arouse a sense of jealousy within him. He had allowed himself to regard her as his own, and the sudden shock which came to him when she spoke of her husband created new impressions in his mind.

Elisabeth resumed.

"You will understand, " she said, "that we were poor when we married, Walter and I. His salary was a hundred pounds a year. I wanted to go on working at my business, for a while at any rate, but he wouldn't hear of it. We had nice rooms, and we furnished them ourselves, and we were very happy in them. We were all to ourselves then, and we never wanted anybody else, because—"

"Yes," said Hepworth. "I think I know what you mean. Go on."

"Well, sir," continued Elisabeth, looking at him wonderingly, as if she did not quite understand his interruption, "everything went well with us for a while. I think things began to go wrong as soon as Stephen Wood came to see us. He was a clerk in