THE POSSUM HUNTERS



which was in our home, including the furniture,
is in storage subject to your demand; I only re-
tain my wearing apparel. You have only to send
directions to the warehouse and the lot will be
shipped to you by prepaid freight. The house
will be sold and the entire proceeds handed over
to you. When you have that money you will
receive every dollar I am worth as an individual;
you could ask for no more.
  "As for you You are to leave Lexington at
once, and remain away for one year; at the end
of the year you are to secure complete divorce
for desertion. For no other cause will I permit
a divorce; and your letters, your diary, and  "
Unwilling to compromise his wife before her
mother, he referred to damaging testimony as
"other documents, give me the right to dictate
terms. That is all; and now," he walked to the
door, opened it into the reception room; "I bid
you good day."
  Caroline looked neither to the right nor the
left as she haughtily walked from his presence.
Mrs. Easson though dazed by the upbraiding of
her daughter, extended her hand as she told him:
  "Whatever I think of you and Caroline,
whether I believe that you misunderstand her or
that she is totally wrong, is not for me to say at
this time. I only know that I love her and respect
you. Good-bye, Hughes."
  When his wife and her mother had passed into
the world beyond, Hughes Randall closed the door
and stood with his head bowed down as though
stricken with the nausea of loneliness.
  Success, a wonderful, a glorious success. was
the unstinted reward which had crowned his de-
termined efforts in the world of commerce; fail-
ure, a bleak, a dismal failure, was the total re-
sult of his effort to create a home. The poignant
sting of failure hurt beyond the gladness of suc-



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