"Yes," Cicily declared, in tremulous tones, "all of them, and the men besides!" Mrs. Delancy bounced from her seat, then slowly subsided into the depths of the easy chair, whence she fairly gaped at her former ward. When, finally, she spoke, it was slowly, with full conviction. "Cicily, you're crazy!" "No," the girl protested, sadly; "only heartbroken. I am so miserable that I wish I were dead!" "But, my dear," Mrs. Delancy argued, "it can't be that you are quite--er--sensible, you know." "Of course, I'm not sensible," Cicily admitted, petulantly. "I said I was jealous, didn't I? Naturally, I can't be sensible." "But Charles can't be married to the men, too!" Mrs. Delancy asserted, wonderingly. At that, Cicily flared in a burst of genuine anger. "Yes, he is, too," she stormed; "and to the women, too--to the buildings, to the machinery, to the nasty ground, to the fire-escapes--to every single thing about that horrid business of his! Oh, I hate it! I hate it! I hate every one of them!... And he is a bigamist, I tell you--yes, a bigamist! He's married to me and to his business, too, and he cares more for his business!" "Humph!" The exclamation came from Mrs. Delancy with much energy. It was surcharged, with relief, for the tragedy was made clear to her at last. Surely, there was room for trouble in the situation, but nothing like that over which she had shuddered during the period of her misapprehension. In the first minute of relief, she felt aroused to indignation against her niece who had so needlessly shocked her. "I do wish, Cicily," she remonstrated, "that you would endeavor to curb your impetuosity. It leads you into such absurdities of speech and of action. Your extravagant way of opening this subject caused me utterly to mistake your meaning, and set me all a-tremble--for a tempest in a teapot." "I think I'll get a divorce," Cicily declared, defiantly. The bride was not in an apologetic mood, inasmuch, as she regarded herself as the one undeservedly suffering under great wrongs. "Perhaps!" Mrs. Delancy retorted, sarcastically. Her usual good humor was returning, after the first reaction from the stress she had undergone by reason of the young wife's fantastic mode of speech. "I suppose you will name Charles's business as the co-respondent." "It takes more out of him than any woman could," was the spirited retort. "Of course, I shall. Why not?" Mrs. Delancy, now thoroughly amused, explained to her niece some details concerning the grounds required by the statutes in the state of New York for the granting of absolute divorce, of which hitherto the carefully nurtured girl had been in total ignorance. Cicily was at first astounded, and then dismayed. But, in the end, she regained her poise, and reverted with earnestness to the need of reform in the courts where such gross injustice could be. She surmised even that in this field she might find ultimately some outlet of a satisfactory sort for her wasted energies.