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 		<article id="a-wicked-woman" epub:type="se:short-story">
 			<h2 epub:type="title">A Wicked Woman</h2>
 			<p>It was because she had broken with Billy that Loretta had come visiting to Santa Clara. Billy could not understand. His sister had reported that he had walked the floor and cried all night. Loretta had not slept all night either, while she had wept most of the night. Daisy knew this, because it was in her arms that the weeping had been done. And Daisy’s husband, Captain Kitt, knew, too. The tears of Loretta, and the comforting by Daisy, had lost him some sleep.</p>
-			<p>Now Captain Kitt did not like to lose sleep. Neither did he want Loretta to marry Billy⁠—nor anybody else. It was Captain Kitt’s belief that Daisy needed the help of her younger sister in the household. But he did not say this aloud. Instead, he always insisted that Loretta was too young to think of marriage. So it was Captain Kitt’s idea that Loretta should be packed off on a visit to <abbr>Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway. There wouldn’t be any Billy there.</p>
+			<p>Now Captain Kitt did not like to lose sleep. Neither did he want Loretta to marry Billy⁠—nor anybody else. It was Captain Kitt’s belief that Daisy needed the help of her younger sister in the household. But he did not say this aloud. Instead, he always insisted that Loretta was too young to think of marriage. So it was Captain Kitt’s idea that Loretta should be packed off on a visit to <abbr epub:type="z3998:name-title">Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway. There wouldn’t be any Billy there.</p>
 			<p>Before Loretta had been at Santa Clara a week, she was convinced that Captain Kitt’s idea was a good one. In the first place, though Billy wouldn’t believe it, she did not want to marry Billy. And in the second place, though Captain Kitt wouldn’t believe it, she did not want to leave Daisy. By the time Loretta had been at Santa Clara two weeks, she was absolutely certain that she did not want to marry Billy. But she was not so sure about not wanting to leave Daisy. Not that she loved Daisy less, but that she⁠—had doubts.</p>
-			<p>The day of Loretta’s arrival, a nebulous plan began shaping itself in <abbr>Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway’s brain. The second day she remarked to Jack Hemingway, her husband, that Loretta was so innocent a young thing that were it not for her sweet guilelessness she would be positively stupid. In proof of which, <abbr>Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway told her husband several things that made him chuckle. By the third day <abbr>Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway’s plan had taken recognizable form. Then it was that she composed a letter. On the envelope she wrote: “<abbr>Mr.</abbr> Edward Bashford, Athenian Club, San Francisco.”</p>
+			<p>The day of Loretta’s arrival, a nebulous plan began shaping itself in <abbr epub:type="z3998:name-title">Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway’s brain. The second day she remarked to Jack Hemingway, her husband, that Loretta was so innocent a young thing that were it not for her sweet guilelessness she would be positively stupid. In proof of which, <abbr epub:type="z3998:name-title">Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway told her husband several things that made him chuckle. By the third day <abbr epub:type="z3998:name-title">Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway’s plan had taken recognizable form. Then it was that she composed a letter. On the envelope she wrote: “<abbr epub:type="z3998:name-title">Mr.</abbr> Edward Bashford, Athenian Club, San Francisco.”</p>
 			<p>“Dear Ned,” the letter began. She had once been violently loved by him for three weeks in her premarital days. But she had covenanted herself to Jack Hemingway, who had prior claims, and her heart as well; and Ned Bashford had philosophically not broken his heart over it. He merely added the experience to a large fund of similarly collected data out of which he manufactured philosophy. Artistically and temperamentally he was a Greek⁠—a tired Greek. He was fond of quoting from Nietzsche, in token that he, too, had passed through the long sickness that follows upon the ardent search for truth; that he too had emerged, too experienced, too shrewd, too profound, ever again to be afflicted by the madness of youths in their love of truth. “ ‘To worship appearance,’ ” he often quoted; “ ‘to believe in forms, in tones, in words, in the whole Olympus of appearance!’ ” This particular excerpt he always concluded with, “ ‘Those Greeks were superficial⁠—<em>out of profundity!</em>’ ”</p>
 			<p>He was a fairly young Greek, jaded and worn. Women were faithless and unveracious, he held⁠—at such times that he had relapses and descended to pessimism from his wonted high philosophical calm. He did not believe in the truth of women; but, faithful to his German master, he did not strip from them the airy gauzes that veiled their untruth. He was content to accept them as appearances and to make the best of it. He was superficial⁠—<em>out of profundity.</em></p>
-			<p>“Jack says to be sure to say to you, ‘good swimming,’ ” <abbr>Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway wrote in her letter; “and also ‘to bring your fishing duds along.’ ” <abbr>Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway wrote other things in the letter. She told him that at last she was prepared to exhibit to him an absolutely true, unsullied, and innocent woman. “A more guileless, immaculate bud of womanhood never blushed on the planet,” was one of the several ways in which she phrased the inducement. And to her husband she said triumphantly, “If I don’t marry Ned off this time⁠—” leaving unstated the terrible alternative that she lacked either vocabulary to express or imagination to conceive.</p>
-			<p>Contrary to all her forebodings, Loretta found that she was not unhappy at Santa Clara. Truly, Billy wrote to her every day, but his letters were less distressing than his presence. Also, the ordeal of being away from Daisy was not so severe as she had expected. For the first time in her life she was not lost in eclipse in the blaze of Daisy’s brilliant and mature personality. Under such favourable circumstances Loretta came rapidly to the front, while <abbr>Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway modestly and shamelessly retreated into the background.</p>
+			<p>“Jack says to be sure to say to you, ‘good swimming,’ ” <abbr epub:type="z3998:name-title">Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway wrote in her letter; “and also ‘to bring your fishing duds along.’ ” <abbr epub:type="z3998:name-title">Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway wrote other things in the letter. She told him that at last she was prepared to exhibit to him an absolutely true, unsullied, and innocent woman. “A more guileless, immaculate bud of womanhood never blushed on the planet,” was one of the several ways in which she phrased the inducement. And to her husband she said triumphantly, “If I don’t marry Ned off this time⁠—” leaving unstated the terrible alternative that she lacked either vocabulary to express or imagination to conceive.</p>
+			<p>Contrary to all her forebodings, Loretta found that she was not unhappy at Santa Clara. Truly, Billy wrote to her every day, but his letters were less distressing than his presence. Also, the ordeal of being away from Daisy was not so severe as she had expected. For the first time in her life she was not lost in eclipse in the blaze of Daisy’s brilliant and mature personality. Under such favourable circumstances Loretta came rapidly to the front, while <abbr epub:type="z3998:name-title">Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway modestly and shamelessly retreated into the background.</p>
 			<p>Loretta began to discover that she was not a pale orb shining by reflection. Quite unconsciously she became a small centre of things. When she was at the piano, there was some one to turn the pages for her and to express preferences for certain songs. When she dropped her handkerchief, there was some one to pick it up. And there was some one to accompany her in ramblings and flower gatherings. Also, she learned to cast flies in still pools and below savage riffles, and how not to entangle silk lines and gut-leaders with the shrubbery.</p>
 			<p>Jack Hemingway did not care to teach beginners, and fished much by himself, or not at all, thus giving Ned Bashford ample time in which to consider Loretta as an appearance. As such, she was all that his philosophy demanded. Her blue eyes had the direct gaze of a boy, and out of his profundity he delighted in them and forbore to shudder at the duplicity his philosophy bade him to believe lurked in their depths. She had the grace of a slender flower, the fragility of colour and line of fine china, in all of which he pleasured greatly, without thought of the Life Force palpitating beneath and in spite of Bernard Shaw⁠—in whom he believed.</p>
 			<p>Loretta burgeoned. She swiftly developed personality. She discovered a will of her own and wishes of her own that were not everlastingly entwined with the will and the wishes of Daisy. She was petted by Jack Hemingway, spoiled by Alice Hemingway, and devotedly attended by Ned Bashford. They encouraged her whims and laughed at her follies, while she developed the pretty little tyrannies that are latent in all pretty and delicate women. Her environment acted as a soporific upon her ancient desire always to live with Daisy. This desire no longer prodded her as in the days of her companionship with Billy. The more she saw of Billy, the more certain she had been that she could not live away from Daisy. The more she saw of Ned Bashford, the more she forgot her pressing need of Daisy.</p>
-			<p>Ned Bashford likewise did some forgetting. He confused superficiality with profundity, and entangled appearance with reality until he accounted them one. Loretta was different from other women. There was no masquerade about her. She was real. He said as much to <abbr>Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway, and more, who agreed with him and at the same time caught her husband’s eyelid drooping down for the moment in an unmistakable wink.</p>
-			<p>It was at this time that Loretta received a letter from Billy that was somewhat different from his others. In the main, like all his letters, it was pathological. It was a long recital of symptoms and sufferings, his nervousness, his sleeplessness, and the state of his heart. Then followed reproaches, such as he had never made before. They were sharp enough to make her weep, and true enough to put tragedy into her face. This tragedy she carried down to the breakfast table. It made Jack and <abbr>Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway speculative, and it worried Ned. They glanced to him for explanation, but he shook his head.</p>
-			<p>“I’ll find out tonight,” <abbr>Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway said to her husband.</p>
+			<p>Ned Bashford likewise did some forgetting. He confused superficiality with profundity, and entangled appearance with reality until he accounted them one. Loretta was different from other women. There was no masquerade about her. She was real. He said as much to <abbr epub:type="z3998:name-title">Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway, and more, who agreed with him and at the same time caught her husband’s eyelid drooping down for the moment in an unmistakable wink.</p>
+			<p>It was at this time that Loretta received a letter from Billy that was somewhat different from his others. In the main, like all his letters, it was pathological. It was a long recital of symptoms and sufferings, his nervousness, his sleeplessness, and the state of his heart. Then followed reproaches, such as he had never made before. They were sharp enough to make her weep, and true enough to put tragedy into her face. This tragedy she carried down to the breakfast table. It made Jack and <abbr epub:type="z3998:name-title">Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway speculative, and it worried Ned. They glanced to him for explanation, but he shook his head.</p>
+			<p>“I’ll find out tonight,” <abbr epub:type="z3998:name-title">Mrs.</abbr> Hemingway said to her husband.</p>
 			<p>But Ned caught Loretta in the afternoon in the big living-room. She tried to turn away. He caught her hands, and she faced him with wet lashes and trembling lips. He looked at her, silently and kindly. The lashes grew wetter.</p>
 			<p>“There, there, don’t cry, little one,” he said soothingly.</p>
 			<p>He put his arm protectingly around her shoulder. And to his shoulder, like a tired child, she turned her face. He thrilled in ways unusual for a Greek who has recovered from the long sickness.</p>