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Mrs. Sanford looked at him for a few seconds in silence. There was something in his look, and especially in his tone, that troubled her.

"What do you mean? Jim, you don’t intend to come back!" She took his arm. "What’s the matter? Now tell me! What are you going away for?"

He knew he could not deceive his wife’s ears and eyes just then, so he remained silent. "We’ve got to leave, Nell," he admitted at last.

"Why? What for?"

"Because I’m busted–broke–gone up the spout–and all the rest!" he said desperately, with an attempt at fun. "Mrs. Bingham and Mrs. McIlvaine have busted me–dead. "

"Why–why–what has become of the money–all the money the people have put in there?"

"Gone up with the rest. "

"What ‘ve you done with it? I don’t–"

"Well, I’ve invested it–and lost it. "

"James Gordon Sanford!" she exclaimed, trying to realize it. "Was that right? Ain’t that a case of–of–"

"Shouldn’t wonder. A case of embezzlement such as you r
ead of in the newspapers. " His tone was easy, but he avoided the look in his wife’s beautiful gray eyes.

"But it’s–stealing–ain’t it?" She stared at him, bewildered by his reckless lightness of mood. "It is now, because I’ve lost. If I’d’a won it, it ‘ud ‘a’ been financial shrewdness!"

She asked her next question after a pause, in a low voice, and through teeth almost set. "Did you go into this bank to–steal this money? Tell me that!"

"No; I didn’t, Nell. I ain’t quite up to that. "

His answer softened her a little, and she sat looking at him steadlly as he went on. The tears began to roll slowly down her cheeks. Her hands were clenched.

"The fact is, the idea came into my head last fall when I went up to Superior. My partner wanted me to go in with him on some land, and I did. We speculated on the growth of the town toward the south. We made a strike; then he wanted me to go in on a copper mine. Of course I expected–"

As he went on with the usual excuses her mind made all the allowances possible for him. He had always been boyish, impulsive, and lacking in judgment and strength of character. She was humiliated and frightened, but she loved and sympathized with him.

Her silence alarmed him, and he made excuses for himself. He was speculating for her sake more than for his own, and so on.

"Cho-coo!" whistled the far-off train through the still air.

He sprang up and reached for his coat.

She seized his arm again. "Where are you going?" she sternly asked.

"To take that train. "

‘When are you coming back?"

"I don’t know. " But his tone said, "Never. "

She felt it. Her face grew bitter. "Going to leave me and–the babies?"

"I’ll send for you soon. Come, goodbye!" He tried to put his arm about her. She stepped back.

"Jim, if you leave me tonight" ("Choo-choo!" whistled the engine) " you leave me forever. " There was a terrible resolution in her tone.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I’m going to stay here. If you go–I’ll never be your wife again–never!" She glanced at the sleeping children, and her chin trembled.

"I can’t face those fellows–they’ll kill me," he said in a sullen tone.

"No, they won’t. They’ll respect you, if you stay and tell ’em exactly how-it-all-is. You’ve disgraced me and my children, that’s what you’ve done! If you don’t stay–"

The clear jangle of the engine bell sounded through the night as with the whiz of escaping steam and scrape and jar of gripping brakes and howl of wheels the train came to a stop at the station. Sanford dropped his coat and sat down again. + " I’ll have to stay now. " His tone was dry and lifeless. It had a reproach in it that cut the wife deep–deep as the fountain of tears; and she went across the room and knelt at the bedside, burying her face in the clothes on the feet of her children, and sobbed silently.