"Not at all--she chose a blockhead--a fool. Now she is paying the price for her error--and I'm mighty sorry for her. The simpleton now is crazy to effect a reconciliation, says he will never give her up, and vows vengeance on Amherst. I advised him, if he can't effect the reconciliation--which of course he can't--to let Stephanie divorce him. But nay! nay! If _he_ can't have her no one shall have her, he declares--she is his wife and she is going to stay his wife--et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It makes me sick! I asked him why, for Stephanie's sake, he didn't forget Amherst and not stir up the nasty scandal afresh? He answered that he would do nothing if she returned to him, but if she did not, he would----" He imitated Lorraine's gesture. "I don't know what that gesture means, but I assume it threatens something dire." "And the pity of it is that he is just a big enough fool to do it," said Pendleton. "If he had acted at once, and shot Amherst down for the vicious beast he is, everyone would have been glad and the deed would have been amply justified. Now it is worse than foolish--it's asinine." "Just so," Devereux responded. "You can't blame him, of course, for feeling bitter, but I haven't any sympathy for him now--he has shilly-shallied so long he would best forget it. Altogether Stephanie seems to have made a devil of a mess of it--with her husband, and the Amherst matter, and coming back the way she did, and refusing Lorraine's overtures for a reconciliation, and _now_ his attitude. It makes a pretty problem in human frailties--and mistakes. There isn't a thing about the whole affair that is normal. Why in thunder didn't Lorraine get killed in the recent accident? No one would ever have missed him!" "Those that will never be missed are usually the ones that can't be killed," Pendleton remarked. "However, so long as Amherst stays away there will be no killing--and Lorraine, in the meantime, may see reason. Let us hope for it--for Stephanie's sake." "And if Lorraine does go into the killing business, I trust he will make a thorough job of it and wipe out both Amherst and himself. Clean the slate!" "A clean slate for a fresh start," said Pendleton. Devereux looked keenly at him. "For a fresh start?" he inflected tentatively. But Pendleton had resumed his smoke rings--and for a time there was silence. Presently Devereux spoke: "I didn't see you at the Croyden's last night." "I wasn't there," replied Pendleton. "I came in from New York this morning. Was it interesting?" "The Croyden functions are always interesting--some more so than others, but any of them will do for mine, thank you!--Lucky chap, Croyden!" Pendleton nodded. "Not many girls would have done what Elaine Cavendish did: throw convention overboard and--because Croyden was poor and wouldn't, and she was rich and loved him--bridge the chasm and made it easy for him to cross to her."