The fact that Tom did not happen to be on duty at the next Club dinner gave me an opportunity to repeat his mysterious remark to Manners, and to jokingly warn that rising young lawyer against the indiscretion of vague counsel.

Manners, however, only shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know what he meant," he said carelessly; "but since he chooses to talk of his own affairs publicly, I don't mind saying that they are neither very weighty nor very dangerous.

It's only the old story: the usual matrimonial infidelities that are mixed up with the Californian emigration.

He leaves the regular wife behind,--fairly or unfairly, I can't say.