you call that? And I believe you have been away with her this last month. It is ridiculous for you to pretend ———”
“I’m not pretending anything, Carr. I tell you frankly I have wished to marry her ever since the beginning of last winter.”
“What!” Valerie’s father lost the little control he now had left. “Of course you did! Your object is plain enough. Of course you’d like to marry her! Of course you’d like to get back so easily after two divorce scandals and the other mess. And a fine husband you would be for my daughter with all that hanging round your neck. By God, marriage is the one thing I will prevent if I can. I tell you that plainly. Damn you! How you can have the infernal cheek—after what I did for you—I’d believe anything after this. And you can get your business out of my hands at once, do you hear? At once. I will not be your lawyer a week longer. If you ruin my daughter, you blackguard ——— But you shall not. If you’d ever had the decency to be a parent you’d know how one feels about a child ———”
The torrent stopped abruptly for Valerie swung through the study door with a livid, quivering face, and clapped her hand on her father’s mouth with the suddenness and the appearance of a blow.
“You rotten coward, to taunt a man because he never had a child. Apologize for that at once or I will never speak to you again as long as I live.”
Davenport Carr fell back a step and Dane sprang from the hammock and snatched her riding-whip from her hand.
“For God’s sake, Val!” he exclaimed, horrified.
“Oh, I wasn’t going to hit him. Please get away, Dane. Are you going to apologize?”
“Val, I insist, please. I will not have any scene. It
