"Yes, I know his silly wife, poor man!" murmured Mrs. Courtney. She seemed to be lost in a sad strain of thought for a short time, and the girls hesitated to speak, just then. Soon, however, she heaved a deep sigh and looked up to smile at the serious faces opposite her. "Well, perhaps there is a great happiness in store for your good friend, to repay him for all he has silently endured these past years." "We sincerely hope so!" affirmed Polly, earnestly. "If anyone deserves peace and joy, dear Dalky does." "How little the world really knows of the sorrows of those who bear their cross in silence!" sighed Mrs. Courtney. "Now, I have heard said that Mr. Dalken is a very gay personage who knows how to make the most of his money and time. But that report came from his wife, so I took it with a grain of salt. I know from my own experience just how the sinner tries to smear the saint with his own crimes although I do not mean by that that I am a saint." "Surely you had no unhappy experience in your life, Mrs. Courtney!" exclaimed Eleanor, not from curiosity but from the desire to hear her esteemed friend declare that she had had only joy in her days. Mrs. Courtney understood the motive that urged the question. "My dear children, my married experience was much like that of your beloved friend. The difference being that my gay husband used my position and wealth to boost himself to the place where he found more agreeable companions than I proved to be. Out of sheer self-respect I was forced to divorce him. Then I began my wanderings over the globe, and finally settled in this city where I was practically unknown. You see, my pride could not brook the pity of my friends although they approved the only course open for me when my husband eloped with another man's wife." "Oh, dear Mrs. Courtney!" sighed Eleanor, ready tears springing to her eyes. But Polly crept over and placed a sympathetic hand upon that of her hostess. "It seems ages ago, my children," added Mrs. Courtney. "I was only eighteen when I married and I was twenty-one when I divorced my husband. I never had a child, and I have always felt as though I had been given a very wretched deal in life, for I love children. Because of my experience, I can advise other young girls--not to marry too young, nor to accept a man for his looks or manners. A girl needs to be experienced from business, or travel and association with men, before she is capable of judging wisely and selecting the proper mate for life." The bond created that morning between the mature woman and the two young girls, proved to be of such quality as would last. And such a friend as Mrs. Courtney would be for two young girls, was one of the benefits both Polly and Eleanor received by visiting country auctions of a higher class. Not that the particular sale at Parsippany was "higher class," because it was proved to have been a fake sale, but the type of buyers it attracted were of an advanced type of mentality.