“Do you think it isn’t humiliating to me?”

“Perhaps it is,” said Charnock, with a half-ashamed look.  “I admit I have been something of an ass, but you are mean, in a sense.  What are you going to do with your money, if you don’t intend to spend it?”

“Use if for making more; anyhow, until I get enough.”

“When will you have enough?”

“When I can sell out the business and live where I want; give you the friends you ought to have instead of low-down gamblers and whisky-tanks.  If you’d take hold and work, Bob, we’d be rich in a few years.  The boys like you, you could do all the trade, and the boom that’s beginning will make this settlement a big place.  But I guess there’s no use in talking—­and I’m ill and tired.”

Sadie’s pose got slack and she leaned her arms on the table with her face in her hands.  Charnock, feeling penitent, tried to comfort her.

“You’re a very good sort, Sadie, and mean well; I’ll go steady and try not to bother you again.  But we won’t say any more about it now.  Are those new letters?  The mail hadn’t come when I left.”

She gave him two envelopes, and after reading part of the first letter he started and the paper rustled in his hand.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.  “Have you lost some money I don’t know about?”

“I haven’t,” Charnock answered with a hoarse laugh.  “The letter’s from some English friends.  You head that Festing had gone back to the Old Country.  Well, he’s going to be married soon and will bring his wife out.”

“Do you know her?  Who is she?”

“Yes; I know her very well.  She’s Helen Dalton.”

“The girl you ought to have married!” Sadie exclaimed.  “What’s she like?  I guess you have her picture, though you haven’t shown it me.”

“I had one, but haven’t now.  I meant to burn the thing, but suspect that Festing stole it.  Confound him!”

Sadie was silent for a few moments and then gave Charnock a searching look.  “Anyhow, I don’t see why that should make you mad.  You let her go and took me instead.  Do you reckon she’d have been as patient with you as I am?”

“No,” said Charnock, rather drearily.  “Helen isn’t patient, and I dare say I’d have broken her heart.  You have done your best for me, and I expect you find it a hopeless job.  For all that, I never thought Festing——­”

“It’s done with,” Sadie rejoined quietly, although there was some color in her face.  “If the girl likes Festing, what has it to do with you?  Besides, as he has located some way back from the settlement, there’s no reason you should meet him or his wife.”  Then she frowned and got up.  “But the place is very cold; we’ll go home.”

Charnock put out the light and locked the door, but he was silent as they walked across the snow to the hotel, and Sadie wondered what he thought.  There was no doubt he was disturbed, or he would have tried to coax her into abandoning her resolution to put him on an allowance.  She meant to be firm about this.