He remembered the blow as though it had been struck but yesterday, and yet the pain of the blow had not been long enduring.

But though then rejected he had always been the chosen friend of the woman,--a friend chosen after an especial fashion.

When he had loved another woman this friend had resented his defection with all a woman's jealousy.

He had saved the husband's life, and had then become also the husband's friend, after that cold fashion which an obligation will create.

Then the husband had been jealous, and dissension had come, and the ill-matched pair had been divided, with absolute ruin to both of them, as far as the material comforts and well-being of life were concerned.