After Aggie's vigorous comment there followed a long silence.

　　That volatile young person, little troubled as she was bysensitiveness, guessed the fact that just now further discussionof the event would be distasteful to Mary, and so she betookherself discreetly to a cigarette and the illustrations of apopular magazine devoted to the stage. As for the man, hisreticence was really from a fear lest in speaking at all he mightspeak too freely, might betray the pervasive violence of hisfeeling. So, he sat motionless and wordless, his eyes carefullyavoiding Mary in order that she might not be disturbed by theinvisible vibrations thus sent from one to another. Mary herselfwas shaken to the depths. A great weariness, a weariness thatcried the worthlessness of all things, had fallen upon her. Itrested leaden on her soul. It weighed down her body as well,though that mattered little indeed. Yet, since she couldminister to that readily, she rose and went to a settee on theopposite side of the room where she arranged herself among thecushions in a posture more luxurious than her rather preciseearly training usually permitted her to assume in the presence ofothers. There she rested, and soon felt the tides of energyagain flowing in her blood, and that same vitality, too, wroughthealing even for her agonized soul, though more slowly. Theperfect health of her gave her strength to recover speedily fromthe shock she had sustained. It was this health that made theglory of the flawless skin, white with a living white thatrevealed the coursing blood beneath, and the crimson lips thatbent in smiles so tender, or so wistful, and the limpid eyes inwhich always lurked fires that sometimes burst into flame, thelustrous mass of undulating hair that sparkled in the sunlightlike an aureole to her face or framed it in heavy splendors withits shadows, and the supple erectness of her graceful carriage,the lithe dignity of her every movement.

　　But, at last, she stirred uneasily and sat up. Garson acceptedthis as a sufficient warrant for speech.

　　"You know--Aggie told you--that Cassidy was up here fromHeadquarters. He didn't put a name to it, but I'm on." Maryregarded him inquiringly, and he continued, putting the fact witha certain brutal bluntness after the habit of his class. "Iguess you'll have to quit seeing young Gilder. The bulls arewise. His father has made a holler.

　　"Don't let that worry you, Joe," she said tranquilly. She alloweda few seconds go by, then added as if quite indifferent: "I wasmarried to Dick Gilder this morning." There came a squeal ofamazement from Aggie, a start of incredulity from Garson.

　　"Yes," Mary repeated evenly, "I was married to him this morning.

　　That was my important engagement," she added with a smile towardAggie. For some intuitive reason, mysterious to herself, she didnot care to meet the man's eyes at that moment.

　　Aggie sat erect, her baby face alive with worldly glee.

　　"My Gawd, what luck!" she exclaimed noisily. "Why, he's a kingfish, he is. Gee! But I'm glad you landed him!""Thank you," Mary said with a smile that was the result of hersense of humor rather than from any tenderness.

　　It was then that Garson spoke. He was a delicate man in hissensibilities at times, in spite of the fact that he followeddevious methods in his manner of gaining a livelihood. So, now,he put a question of vital significance.

　　"Do you love him?"The question caught Mary all unprepared, but she retained herself-control sufficiently to make her answer in a voice that tothe ordinary ear would have revealed no least tremor.

　　"No," she said. She offered no explanation, no excuse, merelystated the fact in all its finality.

　　Aggie was really shocked, though for a reason altogether sordid,not one whit romantic.

　　"Ain't he young?" she demanded aggressively. "Ain't hegood-looking, and loose with his money something scandalous? IfI met up with a fellow as liberal as him, if he was three timeshis age, I could simply adore him!"It was Garson who pressed the topic with an inexorable curiosityborn of his unselfish interest in the woman concerned.

　　"Then, why did you marry him?" he asked. The sincerity of himwas excuse enough for the seeming indelicacy of the question.

　　Besides, he felt himself somehow responsible. He had given backto her the gift of life, which she had rejected. Surely, he hadthe right to know the truth.

　　It seemed that Mary believed her confidence his due, for she toldhim the fact.

　　"I have been working and scheming for nearly a year to do it,"she said, with a hardening of her face that spoke of indomitableresolve. "Now, it's done." A vindictive gleam shot from herviolet eyes as she added: "It's only the beginning, too."Garson, with the keen perspicacity that had made him a successfulcriminal without a single conviction to mar his record, hadseized the implication in her statement, and now put it in words.

　　"Then, you won't leave us? We're going on as we were before?"The hint of dejection in his manner had vanished. "And you won'tlive with him?""Live with him?" Mary exclaimed emphatically. "Certainly not!"Aggie's neatly rounded jaw dropped in a gape of surprise that wasmost unladylike.

　　"You are going to live on in this joint with us?" shequestioned, aghast.

　　"Of course." The reply was given with the utmost of certainty.

　　Aggie presented the crux of the matter.

　　"Where will hubby live?"There was no lessening of the bride's composure as she replied,with a little shrug.

　　"Anywhere but here."Aggie suddenly giggled. To her sense of humor there wassomething vastly diverting in this new scheme of giving bliss toa fond husband.

　　"Anywhere but here," she repeated gaily. "Oh, won't that benice--for him? Oh, yes! Oh, quite so! Oh, yes, indeed--quiteso--so!"Garson, however, was still patient in his determination toapprehend just what had come to pass.

　　"Does he understand the arrangement?" was his question.

　　"No, not yet," Mary admitted, without sign of embarrassment.

　　"Well," Aggie said, with another giggle, "when you do get aroundto tell him, break it to him gently."Garson was intently considering another phase of the situation,one suggested perhaps out of his own deeper sentiments.

　　"He must think a lot of you!" he said, gravely. "Don't he?"For the first time, Mary was moved to the display of a slightconfusion. She hesitated a little before her answer, and whenshe spoke it was in a lower key, a little more slowly.

　　"I--I suppose so."Aggie presented the truth more subtly than could have beenexpected from her.

　　"Think a lot of you? Of course he does! Thinks enough to marryyou! And believe me, kid, when a man thinks enough of you tomarry you, well, that's some thinking!"Somehow, the crude expression of this professional adventuresspenetrated to Mary's conscience, though it held in it the truthto which her conscience bore witness, to which she had tried toshut her ears.... And now from the man came something like adraught of elixir to her conscience--like the trump of doom toh............