“You are very good, after--after--what I--what happened,--I'm sure.” She put up her fan to her lips, and turned her head a little aside. “Of course I shall be glad to help you in anything, Mr. Atherton; you know I always am.” “Yes, and that gave me courage to come to you, even after the way in which we parted this morning. I knew you would not misunderstand me”-- “No,” said Clara softly, doing her best to understand him. “Or think me wanting in delicacy--” “Oh, no, no!” “If I believed that we need not have any embarrassment in meeting in behalf of the poor creature who came to see me just after you left me. The fact is,” he went on, “I felt a little freer to promise your interest since I had no longer any business relation to you, and could rely on your kindness like--like--any other.” “Yes,” assented Clara, faintly; and she forbore to point out to him, as she might fitly have done, that he had never had the right to advise or direct her at which he hinted, except as she expressly conferred it from time to time. “I shall be only too glad--” “And I will have a statement of your affairs drawn up to-morrow, and sent to you.” Her heart sank; she ceased to move the fan which she had been slowly waving back and forth before her face. “I was going to set about it this morning, but Mrs. Hubbard's visit--” “Mrs. Hubbard!” cried Clara, and a little air of pique qualified her despair. “Yes; she is in trouble,--the greatest: her husband has deserted her.” “_Oh_, Mr. Atherton!” Clara's mind was now far away from any concern for herself. The woman whose husband has deserted her supremely appeals to all other women. “I can't believe it! What makes you think so?” “What she concealed, rather than what she told me, I believe,” answered Atherton. He ran over the main points of their interview, and summed up his own conjectures. “I know from things Halleck has let drop that they haven't always lived happily together; Hubbard has been speculating with borrowed money, and he's in debt to everybody. She's been alone in her house for a fortnight, and she only came to me because people had begun to press her for money. She's been pretending to the Hallecks that she hears from her husband, and knows where he is.” “Oh, poor, poor thing!” said Clara, too shocked to say more. “Then they don't know?” “No one knows but ourselves. She came to me because I was a comparative stranger, and it would cost her less to confess her trouble to me than to them, and she allowed me to speak to you for very much the same reason.” “But I know she dislikes me!” “So much the better! She can't doubt your goodness--” “Oh!” “And if she dislikes you, she can keep her pride better with you.”