“Yes; I did. You cost me three hundred dollars, too—a lot of money to pay for a wife these days. You cost me two hundred—the money he stole from me—and another hundred in cold cash that I gave him to get away on. And my very best pants. That's three hundred dollars plus. So that settles that.”
“He is still my husband.”
“But not for long. He threw in a promise to that effect. I made him. He's getting a divorce now.”
“But he can't. I've always been more than faithful.”
“Yes, he can. You stole his trousers. That's grounds for the strongest kind of divorce. That's cruelty de luxe. So that's settled. When are you going to marry me?”
Henrietta, in spite of herself, laughed, but was serious again instantly.
“Never, John,” she said. “I'm not going to do any more marrying. I'm going to do penance for the marrying I have done in the past. If what you say is true and Freeman frees me, I—”
“What?”
“I want to take that poor Lem boy and make a good man of him. I want to do in Lem what I undid in Freeman. I want that to be my penance.” Johnnie laughed, and arose.
“All right! We'll leave it that way to-night. Good-night, Henrietta. You've some penance ahead of you, if I know that boy! Good-night.” Henrietta sat thinking after Johnnie was gone. She had many things she wished to let drift through her mind, trying each as it came up.