CHAPTER XXIII.
THE DESERTED HUSBAND Richard had been very successful in St.Louis.The business which took him there had been more than satisfactorily arranged.

He had collected a thousand-dollar debt he never expected to get, and had been everywhere treated with the utmost deference and consideration, as a man whose worth was known and appreciated.

But Richard was ill at ease, and his face wore a sad, gloomy expression, which many remarked, wondering what could be the nature of the care so evidently preying upon him.

Do what he might, he could not forget the white, stony face which had looked at him so strangely in the gray morning, nor shut out the icy tones in which Ethie had last spoken to him.

Besides this, Richard was thinking of all he had said to her in the heat of passion, and wishing he could recall it in part at least.