"Regy Beaumont is coming to me this afternoon," he said to his brother.
"Would you mind being there to receive him?"
They exchanged glances, and Julian took his leave.
"Now, tell me," Lorrimer said to Ideala.
But an unconquerable fit of shyness came over her the moment they were
left alone together. "I cannot tell you," she answered. "It is too
dreadful to speak of."
"Your husband has done you some great wrong?" he said.
"Yes."
"Something for which you can get legal redress?"
"Yes."
"And that made you desperate?"
"Yes."
"And what did you do?" He put the question abruptly, startling Ideala,
as he had intended.
"_I_? Oh, I--did nothing," she stammered. There was a pause.
"My ideal of marriage is a high one," he said at last, "and I should be
very hard on any short-comings of that kind."
Ideala longed to confide in him, but her shyness continued, and she
walked by his side like one in a dream.
He took her to the station, and when they parted he said, "You will
write and tell me?"
Ideala looked up. There were no hard lines in his face now; he was
slightly flushed.
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