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A Marriage Below Zero.
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was in hands that would dispose of it satisfactorily.

I did not sleep at all that night, but with the ever faithful Marie by my side "killed time" as best I could. Marie was a good girl, but like most of her class, officious. She thought it quite correct to openly sympathize with me, and declare that monsieur treated his wife shamefully. This irritated me, and, if anything, made me still more fretfully anxious.

I was in Grosvenor Square early the following morning, and burst into my mother's room while she was putting a little suspicion of something rosy upon her face.

"Good gracious me, Elsie!" she exclaimed in amazed vexation, as I threw myself into a chair, "you should indeed cultivate a little repose. You really alarm me with your impulsive movements."

I made no answer. I was not in a humor for repartee of any kind. I waited as quietly as I could while mamma hurried a little china dish containing red out of sight, fondly imagining, I suppose, that I had not seen it. Then she sat