Kedzie dreaded every hour's delay as a new risk
of losing Strathdene, who was showing an increasing rage at having
the name of his wife-to-be bandied about in the press, with her
portraits in formal pose or snapped by batteries of reporters.
Her lawyer emphasized the heartbreak it was to her to learn that
her adored husband had been led astray by her trusted friend. This
did not make pleasant reading for the jealous Strathdene, and he
wished himself jolly well out of the whole affair.
It was not long before his own name began to slip into the case by
innuendo. Once he was in, he could not decently abandon his Kedzie,
though he had to prove his devotion by denying it and threatening
to shoot anybody who implied that his interest in Mrs. Dyckman was
anything more than formal.
Jim Dyckman was impatient to have done with the suit, however it
ended. He was tossed on both horns of the dilemma. He was compelled
to fight one woman to save another. He could not defend Charity
without striking Kedzie and he could not spare Kedzie without
destroying Charity.
In a situation that would have overwhelmed the greatest tacticians
he floundered miserably. He vowed that whatever the outcome of
the case might be, he would never look at a woman again. Men find
it very easy to condemn womankind _en bloc_, and they are
forever forswearing the sex as if it were a unit or a bad habit.
During the necessary delay in reaching trial Jim asked and received
an extension of his leave of absence; then his regiment came home
from the Border and was mustered out of the Federal service and
received again into the State control.
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