“I am not engaged to any one, Mrs. Haldene, and I hope you will do me the favor to deny the report whenever you come across it.”  Patty had returned.  “It seems incredible that a young man may not call upon a young woman without their names becoming coupled matrimonially.”

“Nevertheless, he is regarded as extremely eligible.”

“I have often wondered over Haldene’s regular Saturday night jag at the club,” said John, stringing his count, “but I wonder no longer.  They say she never goes out Saturdays.”

Warrington heard the words, but the sense of them passed by.  He could realize only one thing, and that was, he loved Patty better than all the world.  He could accept his own defeat with philosophy, but another man’s success!—­could he accept that?  How strangely everything had changed in the last few days!  He had never known real mental anguish; heartaches in others had always afforded him mild amusement and contempt.  It was one thing, he reflected, to write about human emotions; it was entirely another thing to live and act them.  He saw that his past had been full of egotism and selfishness, but he also saw that his selfishness was of the kind that has its foundation in indifference and not in calculation.  The voices went on down stairs, but he ceased to pay any attention to them.

“John, there’s been something in my mind for many months.”

“What is it?”

“Do you recollect the night you came into my rooms in New York?”

“I shall never forget it,” quietly.

“Your wife was there.”

“I know it.  I found her gloves.”  He made a difficult masse.  “She told me all about it.  At the time, however, I had a pretty bad case of heart-trouble.  But I understand.  She was in the habit of dropping in on you.  Why not?  Your cooperation made you both famous.  A man in love finds all sorts of excuses for jealousy.  But I’m glad you’ve spoken.  I can readily understand how you felt when you found the gloves gone.

“You’re a good man, John,” said Warrington.

“Kate loves me; it ought to make any man good to have a wife who loves him.  I have no use for a man who sees evil in everything and good in nothing.  Say no more about it, boy.”

“I hadn’t seen you in so long that I was confused.  If I had reflected ...  But you see, I didn’t know that you were engaged, or even that you knew her.  I never understood, until you were gone, why she wanted to hide herself.  I’m glad I’ve relieved my mind.”  Warrington sighed.

“It’s all right.  There!  I told you that I’d win even at those odds.”

Presently they heard a stir down stairs.  Mrs. Franklyn-Haldene was going.  The door closed.  The family came up to the billiard-room.  Warrington looked at Patty, whose cheeks were flushed and whose eyes flashed.

“Why, what’s the matter, Pat?” John asked.

“Nothing.”

“Mrs. Haldene has been making herself useful as usual,” said Mrs. Jack, slipping her arm around Patty’s waist.