will have the name of that man—we may be asking him to dinner next week.”
“You may, indeed. That would Be one of the pleasant little contretemps of your set, one of the reasons why I despise it so heartily, even though I see the humour of it. I’m sorry it’s lost on you.”
Valerie moved to the red table, and took up one of the goblets of whisky. “Here, father!”
But he ignored it, and dropped speechless and shaking back into the chair.
She went on quietly now, and Dane stood leaning against a post listening to her. “Well, it was a tragic experience for me, for the man was such a cur afterwards. He was scared to death, was terrified lest I should tell you. He made it all so ugly. And I had no one to turn to. Can you see me telling mother—or anybody? I had such a helpful lot of relatives! And I knew then what it was to need a friend. I nearly told dear old Marie, but I thought it would worry her so. So I had to puzzle it out alone. Most of us do when we’re struggling kids. And it was awfully hard, because I saw that so many were doing the thing I had done and thought nothing of it, but I knew my one night was all wrong, and it became more and more horrid as I thought about it, and it was awful to have the man so scared and so distrustful. Oh, it made me so sick. And I could feel it all in the air about me when I went on the yacht, but I played the game and went as if nothing had ever happened to me. I had learned my lesson. That would never happen to me again. But I felt it about me and I knew you were in it too. And I began to think about it. I saw that just being sick about it and despising everybody didn’t settle it. I began to read books, and that helped me a lot. I got a different point of view. And I tried to piece you all together again, to be fair to
