Bitterness paused for a moment before he answered. Then he said in a low voice: “I do not see how anyone can deny that it turned out to be a most fortunate thing for my cousin that she did go with him. I must admit that I think she is to be envied!”

“Indeed!” exclaimed his wife, her cheeks flushing hotter with anger every moment. “I seem to remember that you and others went after the said fortunate cousin in order to try to bring her back. And I believe she was charming enough to stone you, and was the cause also of her cousin Pride’s being crippled for life!”

A slow flush rose on her husband’s cheeks also, but there was no change in his voice as he answered quietly: “It is quite true, but we were trying to kidnap her by force, and it was her only means of self-defense. When I think of her situation now, and what it would have been if we had succeeded in turning her back and forcing her to marry Craven Fear, I cannot help feeling that she is one of the most fortunate people in the world.” He paused a moment, and then, raising his voice slightly, he added, “If the Shepherd can do the same sort of thing for that poor, brokenhearted woman upstairs, I for one am not going to try to prevent it.”

His wife glared at him angrily, but not exactly as though she were surprised to find him take this point of view.

“What has come over you?” she demanded after a pause. “You have never been the same since you came back from that journey to the mountains and your unsuccessful attempt to make Much-Afraid return.”

Her husband went on eating with his eyes fixed on his plate, and then answered in an even lower tone: “You are right. I am not the same.”

Murmuring looked startled and a little nonplussed; then she rallied and went back to the main point.

“Well, I tell you, Bitterness—and mark my words, for they will certainly come true—if you let the Shepherd continue to visit Spiteful here in this house our business will be ruined, absolutely ruined.”

For the first time her husband raised his head and looked straight in her face, and his eyes were dark with bitterness and with some other emotion which she could not define. “Sometimes,” said he slowly and painfully, “sometimes I think that I would not care if the business were ruined, if only we could get rid of the cursed thing altogether.”

Mrs. Bitterness gasped with horror, and then said in a tone pregnant with wrath and accusation, “You’ve been talking with the Shepherd yourself, Bitterness?”

He nodded without speaking.

“Sneaking up to that attic too!” exploded his wife furiously. “You would! You would do a thing like that! Putting yourself under the influence of that Man!—letting him twist you round his little finger—till you actually want to take the food out of the mouths of your own helpless little children! There you sit,” she went on hysterically, “actually telling me that you wouldn’t mind if the business were ruined. Our hotel! The most prosperous and well-conducted inn in the whole Valley! I wonder you don’t choke on the words!”