"Where is Orlean?" he inquired after a time, whereupon his wife's face darkened.
"Oh, she's sick, and in bed," replied Ethel guardedly.
Glavis grunted. He was thinking. For a time he forgot all that was around him; his wife, the supper, his work, all but Jean Baptiste and the wife that was being harbored under the roof that he kept up. He suddenly got up. He walked quickly out of the room and hurried upstairs while his wife's back was turned, and knocked at the door of the room wherein Orlean was supposed to lay sick.
"Come in," called the other.
"Oh, it's you, Glavis," she cried, dropping back into bed when he entered the door.
"A—ah—Orlean," he said in his stammering sort of way. "A—ah—how are you?"
"Why, I feel well, Glavis," she replied wonderingly. She had never felt just right mentally since before she left the West. And when she allowed herself to think, she found that it hurt her. She had always been obedient—her father had told her that time and again, and gave her great credit for being so. "Think of it, my dear," he had so often said, "in all your life you have never 'sassed' your father, or contraried him," whereupon he would look greatly relieved. So her father had laid down the rule she was following—trying to follow. Her husband must certainly have been in grave error—not that she had observed it, or that she had been badly treated by him, for she had not. However, whenever she tried to see and understand what it all meant, it hurt her. She was again the victim of those nervous little spells that had harassed her before she married, but which had strangely left her during that time. But to do her father's will—for he never bid—always his was an influence that seemed to need no words—she was trying. So she looked up at Glavis, and observed something unusual in his face.
"What is the matter, Glavis?" she inquired, sitting up in bed again. Glavis shifted about uneasily before replying.
"Ah—why—Orlean, it's Baptiste, your husband."
"Jean!" she cried, forgetting everything but her husband—forgetting that she had allowed herself to be parted from him. "What—what is the matter with him, Glavis? With Jean? Has something happened? Oh, I'm always so afraid something will happen to Jean!"