"You're torturing me," muttered the man, mopping his brow.
"She's--she's Jinnie Grandoken--the girl who played at Theo's party."
"Good God!" and then through the silence came another muttered, "Great merciful God!"
Molly allowed him to regain his self-control.
"I told you that night, Jordan, I thought I remembered her," she then said. "To-day I found out it was she."
"Tell me all you know," ordered Morse, with darkening brow.
Molly openly admitted her jealousy of Jinnie. She had no shame because, long before, she had told her husband of her absorbing passion for Theodore King.
"I discovered it purely by accident," she went on, relating the story.
"Now what're you going to do?" demanded Molly presently.
Jordan threw away his cigar and thrust his hands deep into his pockets, stretching out a pair of long legs. There he sat considering the tips of his boots in silence.
"I've got to think, and think quick," he broke out suddenly. "My God! I might have known she didn't belong in that cobbler's shop.... I'll go now.... Don't mention this to Theo."
As he was leaving, he said with curling lip:
"I guess now you know my prospects you won't be so stingy. I'll have to have money to carry this through."
When she was alone, Molly's anger decreased. She had an ally now worth having. She smiled delicately as she passed up the stairs to her room, and the smile was brought to her lips because she remembered having begged Jordan to help her in this matter several times before. Then he had had no incentive, but to-day----Ah, now he would give her a divorce quietly! The social world in which she hoped to move would know nothing of her youthful indiscretion.
That night Jinnie and Peg were bending anxiously over a basket near the kitchen stove. All that human hands and hearts could do had been done for the suffering barn-cat. He had given no sign of consciousness, his breath coming and going in long, deep gasps.
"He'll die, won't he, Peg?" asked Jinnie, sorrowfully.
"Yes, sure. An' it'll be better for the beast, too." Peg said this tempestuously.
"I'd like to have him live," replied Jinnie. "Milly Ann mightn't love him, but she got used to Happy Pete, didn't she?"
"This feller," assured Peggy, wagging her head, "won't get used to anything more on this earth."