I found her alone and looking almost beautiful in the bright red crepe gown she wore. Her skin was fair but pale and her cheeks reflected just enough of the color to enhance the effect. We had a long talk on generalities and gradually drifted to personalities.
“I am quite surprised at Geoffrey’s marrying again,” said I. “I had begun to think him proof against the fair sex five years ago, and it seems to me he added four more to that, with all due respect for you, my charming hostess.”
“Well,” she sighed, “he might still have remained single had not he met me in my forlorn condition, and I often think pity was the deepest sentiment he felt until we had been married several months. Well, you see, like most Chicago women, I have a story, and mine is a long one, but probably not an unusual one.”
“Dare I presume to ask you for it, on the strength of my long friendship for your husband?”
She was gazing dreamily into the grate and did not reply for a moment, then she turned her glorious eyes toward me and said slowly, “Yes, I will tell you if you think it will interest you.”
I assured her it would and asked her to proceed.
“I was married once before, too,” she said, “but was so unhappy that I left my husband and secured a divorce on the grounds of cruelty. I was granted a small alimony, enough to supply my modest wants.
“As time went on, I became rather dissatisfied with my quiet life and was filled with a desire to enter the business world. It was just about this time that a friend of mine, being too ill to go down town, asked me to do an errand for her. It took me into an office building, and when I entered the reception room I was told that the party for whom I inquired was not in, but was expected soon, so I sat down and waited.
“While I was waiting a man came out of one of the private offices, and as he saw me waiting he stopped and asked me whom I wished to see. When I told him he asked me into his office to wait, saying I would find it more pleasant there than in the reception room.