A Clash and a Kiss

"Jim is a jellyfish," I said contemptuously. "What did he say?"

"He said he only cared for one woman, and that was Bella; that he never
had really cared for you and never would, and that divorce courts were
not unmitigated evils if they showed people the way to real happiness.
Which wouldn't amount to anything if Harbison had not been in the tent,
trying to sleep!"

Dal did not know all the particulars, but it seems that relations
between Jim and Mr. Harbison were rather strained. Bella had left the
roof and Jim and the Harbison man came face to face in the door of the
tent. According to Dal, little had been said, but Jim, bound by his
promise to me, could not explain, and could only stammer something about
being an old friend of Miss Knowles. And Tom had replied shortly that
it was none of his business, but that there were some things friendship
hardly justified, and tried to pass Jim. Jim was instantly enraged; he
blocked the door to the roof and demanded to know what the other man
meant. There were two or three versions of the answer he got. The
general purport was that Mr. Harbison had no desire to explain further,
and that the situation was forced on him. But if he insisted--when a man
systematically ignored and neglected his wife for some one else, there
were communities where he would be tarred and feathered.

"Meaning me?" Jim demanded, apoplectic.

"The remark was a general one," Mr. Harbison retorted, "but if you wish
to make a concrete application--!"