"Did you know him?
"May I trust you, Jean?
"Why, certainly! ^hat's up?
"I need you, Jeanie; I need a friend with a level head."
Mrs. McAlpin's face was gray, like ashes, and her aspect of fear was startling.
"What under heaven is the matter? "asked Jean.
"That man is my husband!"
"Then I congratulate you. Daddie was much pleased with him. But I thought your husband was a man of leisure, travelling in Europe, or Asia, or among the ruins of Central America. You told me he was an archaeologist. Did you expect to find him here on these plains?"
"No, Jean, or I should not have been here myself. Only think of it! I started on this journey on purpose to hide myself away from him for good and all. He had gone to England a year ago to claim a vast estate, and I planned to leave Chicago for this wild-goose chase on purpose to avoid him. I had no idea he'd ever think of taking up a business like freighting in a fur company. But there is no way to foresee the acts of a man who has more money than he knows what to do with. I suppose he grew weary of the Old World." Mrs. McAlpin sighed.
"Are you quite sure it was he?"
"It could not have been anybody else. I M know that voice if I heard it in Kamchatka. And I saw him, too. I cannot be mistaken."
- ' And you are determined not to live as his wife any more?"
"I simply cannot, will not, live a lie any longer."
"Why do you tell me about this, Mrs. McAlpin? I 'm nothing but an inexperienced girl."
"But you have more discretion than most grown-up people. »
