have had my day. For years it was an enviable one. No woman can hope
for more. What right have I to stand in the way of another woman's
happiness? A happiness no one can value better than I, who so long
wore it in security. I bore my children in peace, with the divine
consolation of your devotion about me. What right have I to deny
another woman the same joy?"

Shattuck sprang to his feet.

"It's not true!" he gasped. "It's not true!"

The woman never even raised her eyes. She went on carefully inspecting
the filmy bit of lace in her hands.

"It _is_ true," she replied. "Never mind how I discovered it. I know
it. That is why she has gone abroad alone. I did not speak until I had
to. I am a coward, but not enough of one to bear the thought of her
alone in a foreign country with mind and emotions clouded. I may be
cowardly enough to wish that I had never found it out,--I am not
coward enough to keep silent any longer."

A torrent of words rushed to the man's lips, but he was too wise to
make excuses. Yet there were excuses. Any fair-minded judge would have
said so. But he knew better than to think that for one moment they
would be excuses in the mind of this woman. Besides, the first man's
excuse for the first sin has never been viewed with much respect under
the modern civilization.

He felt her slowly rise to her feet, and when he raised his head to
look at her--not yet fully realizing what had happened to him--all