Abstractedly he touched the cheek she had
kissed. Suddenly a change passed over his face. He dropped in a chair,
and his fist struck the table as he said: "By God, she may do it, she may
do it! But it's life and death--it's life and death."
Society had its sensation, and then the veil dropped. For a long time
none looked behind it except Jim's father. He had too much at stake not
to have his telescope upon them. A detective followed them to keep Jim's
record. But this they did not know.
II
From the day they left Washington Jim put his life and his fate in his
wife's hands. He meant to follow her judgment, and, self-willed and
strong in intellect as he was, he said that she should have a fair chance
of fulfilling her purpose. There had been many pour parlers as to what
Jim should do. There was farming. She set that aside, because it meant
capital, and it also meant monotony and loneliness; and capital was
limited, and monotony and loneliness were bad for Jim, deadening an
active brain which must not be deprived of stimulants--stimulants of a
different sort, however, from those which had heretofore mastered it.
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