"No! My fish!" chuckled the colonel, as he skilfully played the
luckless trout, now struggling to get loose from the hook.

And when the fish was landed, panting on the grass, and Shag had been
roused from his slumber to slip the now limp fish into the creel,
Colonel Ashley gave a sigh of relief and remarked:

"I think I see it now."

"The reason she asked no alimony?" inquired Kenneth.

"No. I wasn't thinking of that. But I have been gathering up some
loose ends, and I think I know where to tie them together. However,
don't think I'm not interested in your case. I've fished enough for
to-day. Not that, ordinarily, I'm satisfied with one, but I'm not
working the rod now. I am, as Shag calls it, 'detectin',' and I just
came out here to clarify my thoughts. Having done that, I'm at your
service, if I can help."

"Well, I don't know that you can. As I said, the facts of the
separation of the Larchs will soon be heralded all over the city, for
the final papers were filed to-day, and the reporters will be sure to
see them. So there is no harm in my telling you about it. It's a
plain and sordid story enough, with the exception of her refusal of
alimony, and that I can't understand. Do you care to hear about it?"

"Certainly, my dear Kenneth."

"It has no connection with the Darcy murder, and so I didn't mention it
to you before."

"Go on."

"It isn't generally known," went on the lawyer, "that the hotel
keeper's wife has left him. She went away a short time ago, and came
to me and told me her story. It was one of what at first might be
called refined cruelty on her husband's part, degenerating gradually
into that of the baser sort."

"You don't mean that Larch struck her--that there was physical abuse,
do you?" asked the colonel.

"That's what he did. He seems to have been decent for a while after
their marriage--which marriage was a mistake from the first--I can see
that now. I used to know Cynthia when she was a girl--she was the
daughter of Lodan Ratchford, and her mother had peculiar and, to my
mind, wrong ideas of social position and money. Well, poor Cynthia is
paying the penalty now. She was really forced into this marriage
which, to say the least, must have been distasteful to her. But I
don't suppose more than two or three know that."

The colonel did not disclose the fact that it was no news to him.
Aaron Grafton's statement was being unexpectedly confirmed. He
remembered that Cynthia and Grafton had once been in love with each
other.

"Well, when Cynthia came to me, in my capacity as lawyer as well as old
friend, I could hardly believe what she told me about her husband,"
went on Kenneth. "She said he had struck her more than once, and she
could stand it no longer.

"She wanted to apply for a divorce, but when I showed her that this
would bring about much publicity, and necessitate taking testimony on
both sides with possibly a long-dragged out case, she agreed merely to
ask for a separation now, on the accusation of cruel and inhuman
treatment. On those grounds I went before the vice chancellor,
prepared to prove my case by competent witnesses. But they were not
needed."

"Why not?"

"Because Larch made no defense. He let the case go by default, for
which I was glad, as it saved Cynthia from telling her story in open
court. Larch, by refusing to appear, practically admitted the charges
against him and did not oppose the separation.

"Then came the matter of alimony, or, rather, I should call it separate
maintenance, as it is not alimony until a divorce is granted, and that
has not yet been done, though we may apply for that later.

"I was prepared to ask the vice chancellor for a pretty stiff annual
sum for my client, for I know Larch is rich, when, to my surprise, she
would not permit it. She said if she left him it was for good and all,
and that she wanted none of his bounty. She had some means of her own,
she declared, and would work rather than accept a cent from him.

"So I had to let her have her way, and we did not ask the court for
money, though I had no such squeamish feelings when it came to my
counsel fee. I got that out of Larch rather than his wife."

"Did he pay it?"

"No; but he will, or I'll sue him and get judgment. Oh, he'll pay all
right. He'll be so tickled to get out of paying his wife a monthly sum
that he'll settle with me. But I can't understand her attitude any
more than I can the change that came over him. For I really think he
loved Cynthia once. She was a beautiful girl, and is still a handsome
woman, though trouble has left its mark on her. Well, it's a queer
world anyhow!"


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