His heart beat rapid with pride as he read the flattering words--hisgirl had made good, you bet!

Suddenly he started, almost crushing the paper in his arms, and everybit of color went from his face. "What's this? 'Unhappily married '--'borne with heroic happyness.'" He read it through to the end.

He stopped his horses and looked around--he did not know, himself, whatthought was inside his mind. Jim Dawson had always been able to settle hisdisputes without difficulty or delay. There was something to be donenow. The muscles swelled inside his arms. Surely something could bedone!...

Then the wanton cruelty, the utter brutality of the printed page camehome to him--there was no way, no answer.

Strange to say, he felt no resentment for himself; even the paragraphabout the old lover, with its hidden and sinister meaning, wrathed himonly in its relation to her. Why shouldn't the man admire her if he wasan old lover?--Kate must have had dozens of men in love with her--whyshouldn't any man admire her?