ing, and took the pail out to the pump. When he came back he had clearly made up his mind to a course of action.
"Breakfast's ready."
"I'm not eating. Not yet. You and I've got some things to clear up first."
"You'd better have some coffee," she said coldly. "You look as though you need it."
"About this girl," he began, ignoring her remark, "I just want to say this. She"
"It isn't about the girl; not now. I daresay I was foolish. That's all over."
He stared at her.
"Then what?"
"I think," she said, her lips shaking, "that you've been drinking again."
"What makes you think that?"
"Drinking and fighting," she persisted. "Maybe you haven't seen the bruise on your face."
She could hear the shrewish overstrained note in her own voice, but she could not control it. Tom put his hand to his cheek, and then turning went into the bedroom and closed the door. When he came out again he had a blanket over his arm, and the old felt slipper in his hand.
"When you're in a reasonable mood we'll talk this thing over," he said. "Until you tell me you're ready I'm sleeping in the barn."
She had a wild hysterical fit of crying after he had gone, lying face down on the bed; she was filled with self-pity. She had abandoned everything that made life worth while, recklessly staked all she had on one throw of the dice, and luck had been against her. But after a time the will power which was her inheritance from old Lucius Dowling asserted itself. She got up and set about the routine of the day, heated more water and washed the breakfast dishes from which nothing had been eaten, and swept and dusted the sitting room.
Tom did not come in again, and later on she saw him in the Ford, starting out. He never so much as glanced at the house as he went by. Suspicion was still doing strange
