Mr Richard Bede decided to stay at the house that night as lone as he pos sibly could, so that there would be the less likelihood of James asking Bertha about the letter. An explanation would spoil all, and Air Richard Bede knew that. He wisbtd his brother rather to brood over the letter, and in the end to seek the devil he had allied himself to before, when Breffer was the plotter. "Iv 'hat case," thought the manager, "Bertha will quickly become disgusted with him, for a woman naturally tends to dislike a man who carries about with him an atmosphere of stale grog, aad whose immediate neighborhood consti tutes a nuisance. She may leave him — she may not. In any oaee she is bound to draw comparisons in my favor."

But for some time things did not go as Mr Eichard Bede had planned that they should go. James read and re read the letter until he knew every word in it by heart, bat he did not do what Mr Richard Bede had hoped for. If James had possessed a stronger mind he would at once have shown tlio letter to bis wife, and asked her for an ex planation. But just as he bud failed to take tbat sensible course with regard to the letter that previously caused him so much trouble, co it was with this letter. Sometimes he would try to find in it only what a woman who loved her hus band might write to a man who had unsuccessfully courted her before her marriage. But tbe letter was too wiokedly conceived and too artfully worded to allow of tbat refuge, and do what be oould he failed to make him self believe as his strong love for Bertha; made him wish to believe if possible.
