"Are you seeing much of him ?" "He took us all out to supper last night," she replied.

"I thought it was very kind of him to ask me." "Kind, indeed! Does he want to marry you ?" Tavernake demanded.
She set down the teapot and again she laughed softly.

In her plain black gown, very simple, adorned only by the little white bow at her neck, quakerlike and spotless, with the added color in her cheeks, too, which seemed to have come there during the last few moments, she was a very alluring person.
"He can't," she declared.

"He is married already." Then there came to Tavernake an inspiration, an inspiration so wonderful that he gripped the sides of his chair and sat up.

Here, after all, was the way out for him, the way out from his garden of madness, the way to escape from that mysterious, paralyzing yoke whose burden was already heavy upon his shoulders.