I was gaily humming to myself as I put on my clothes when James Felderson came in. His face was drawn and his mouth was set in a way that was utterly foreign to Jim, whose smile has done more to keep peace in committee meetings and to placate irate members than all other harmonizing agencies in the club put together. There was something unnatural, too, about his eyes, as though he had been drinking. "Have you seen Helen?" he demanded in a thick voice. "No. Not to-day," I answered. "What's the matter, Jim? Anything wrong?" Felderson has been my law partner ever since he married my sister Helen. I had left him at the office just before lunch and he had seemed then as cheerful and unperturbed as usual. "Helen has gone with Frank Woods!" he burst out, his voice breaking as he spoke. It took a second for me to grasp the meaning of what he said, then I grabbed him by the shoulder. "Jim, Jim, what are you saying?" My sister--left her husband--run off with another man! I had read of such things in stories, but never had I believed that real people, in real life and of real social position, ever so disgraced themselves. Every one knew that Frank Woods had been seeing a lot of Helen, and several close friends had asked me if Jim knew the man's reputation. I had even spoken to Helen, only to be laughed at, and assured that it was the idle gossip of scandal-mongers. That she should have left Jim, darling old Jim, for Frank Woods, or any other man, was unthinkable. Jim sank on a bench and turned a face to me that had grown utterly haggard. "It's true, Bupps! I found this on the table when I went home to lunch." He held out a crumpled note written in Helen's rather mannish back-hand. "Jim, "It is now ten-thirty. Frank is coming for me at eleven. He has made me realize that, loving him the way I do, I would be doing you a horrible injustice to keep up the wretched pretense of being your wife. "Had you left any other way open, I would have taken it, but you refused a divorce. I hate to hurt you the way I must, but try to understand and forgive me. "Helen." I turned toward Jim. His chin was sunk in his hands. Two men came in from the tennis-courts and nodded as they went by. "What have you done?" I asked. He raised his head, and on his face was written incalculable misery. "Nothing!" he answered, dropping his hands hopelessly. "What can I do, except let them go and get a divorce as soon as possible? It's my fault. After we--quarreled the other night, she asked me to divorce her, and I refused. God, Bupps! If you only knew how much I love her and how hard I've tried to make her love me. And she did love me till Woods came along."