Part 5 (1/2)

”Very well,” continued Alfred, ”I'll tell you something too. I've done with her.” He thrust his hands in his pockets and began to walk up and down.

”What a turbulent household,” thought Jimmy and then he set out in pursuit of his friend. ”I'm sorry you've had a misunderstanding,” he began.

”Misunderstanding!” shouted Alfred, turning upon him so sharply that he nearly tripped him up, ”we've never had anything else. There was never anything else for us TO have. She's lied up hill and down dale from the first time she clinched her baby fingers around my hand--” he imitated Zoie's dainty manner--”and said 'pleased to meet you!' But I've caught her with the goods this time,” he shouted, ”and I've just about got HIM.”

”Him!” echoed Jimmy weakly.

”The wife-stealer,” exclaimed Alfred, and he clinched his fists in antic.i.p.ation of the justice he would one day mete out to the despicable creature.

Now Jimmy had been called many things in his time, he realised that he would doubtless be called many more things in the future, but never by the wildest stretch of imagination, had he ever conceived of himself in the role of ”wife-stealer.”

Mistaking Jimmy's look of amazement for one of incredulity, Alfred endeavoured to convince him.

”Oh, YOU'LL meet a wife-stealer sooner or later,” he a.s.sured him. ”You needn't look so horrified.”

Jimmy only stared at him and he continued excitedly: ”She's had the effrontery--the bad taste--the idiocy to lunch in a public restaurant with the blackguard.”

The mere sound of the word made Jimmy shudder, but engrossed in his own troubles Alfred continued without heeding him.

”Henri, the head-waiter, told me,” explained Alfred, and Jimmy remembered guiltily that he had been very b.u.mptious with the fellow.

”You know the place,” continued Alfred, ”the LaSalle--a restaurant where I am known--where she is known--where my best friends dine--where Henri has looked after me for years. That shows how desperate she is. She must be mad about the fool. She's lost all sense of decency.” And again Alfred paced the floor.

”Oh, I wouldn't go as far as that,” stammered Jimmy.

”Oh, wouldn't you?” cried Alfred, again turning so abruptly that Jimmy caught his breath. Each word of Jimmy's was apparently goading him on to greater anger.

”Now don't get hasty,” Jimmy almost pleaded. ”The whole thing is no doubt perfectly innocent. Talk to her gently. Win her confidence. Get her to tell you the truth.”

”The truth!” shouted Alfred in derision. ”Zoie! The truth!”

Jimmy feared that his young friend might actually become violent. Alfred bore down upon him like a maniac.

”The truth!” he repeated wildly. ”She wouldn't know the truth if she saw it under a microscope. She's the most unconscionable little liar that ever lured a man to the altar.”

Jimmy rolled his round eyes with feigned incredulity.

”I found it out before we'd been married a month,” continued Alfred.

”She used to sit evenings facing the clock. I sat with my back to it.

I used to ask her the time. Invariably she would lie half an hour, backward or forward, just for practice. THAT was the BEGINNING. Here, listen to some of these,” he added, as he drew half a dozen telegrams from his inner pocket, and motioned Jimmy to sit at the opposite side of the table.

Jimmy would have preferred to stand, but it was not a propitious time to consult his own preferences. He allowed himself to be bullied into the chair that Alfred suggested.

Throwing himself into the opposite chair, Alfred selected various exhibits from his collection of messages. ”I just brought these up from the office,” he said. ”These are some of the telegrams that she sent me each day last week while I was away. This is Monday's.” And he proceeded to read with a sneering imitation of Zoie's cloy sweetness.

”'Darling, so lonesome without you. Cried all day. When are you coming home to your wee sad wifie? Love and kisses. Zoie.'” Tearing the defenceless telegram into bits, Alfred threw it from him and waited for his friend's verdict.

”She sent that over the wire?” gasped Jimmy.

”Oh, that's nothing,” answered Alfred. ”That's a mild one.” And he selected another from the same pocket. ”Here, listen to this. This is what she REALLY did. This is from my secretary the same night.”