“What did you do to her for saying it?”

“Dont lose your temper.  I didnt strangle her, nor even box her ears.  Why should I?  She only repeats what you teach her.”

“She repeats what her eyes and ears teach her.  If she learned the word from me, she learned the meaning from you.  A nice lesson for a child hardly three years old.”

Susanna sat down on a bench, and looked down at her feet.  After a few moments, she tightened her lips; rose; and walked away.

“Hallo!  Where are you going to?” said Marmaduke, following her.

“I’m going to get some drink.  I have been sober and miserable ever since I wrote to you.  I have not got much thanks for it, except to be made more miserable.  So I’ll get drunk, and be happy.”

“No, you shant,” said Marmaduke, seizing her arm, and forcibly stopping her.

“What does it matter to you whether I do or not?  You say you won’t come back.  Then leave me to go my own way.”

“Here! you sit down,” he said, pushing her into a chair.  “I know your game well enough.  You think you have me safe as long as you have the child.”

“Oh, thats it, is it?  Why dont you go out; take a cab; and go to Laurel Grove for her?  There is nothing to prevent you taking her away.”

“I have a good mind to do it.”

“Well, do it.  I wont stop you.  Why didnt you do it long ago?  Her home is no place for her.  I’m not fit to have charge of her.  I have no fancy for having her talking about me, and most likely mimicking me to other people.”

“Thats exactly what I want to arrange with you to do, if you will only be reasonable.  Listen.  Let us part friends, Susanna, since there is no use in our going on together.  You must give me the child.  It would only be a burden to you; and I can have it well taken care of.  You can keep the house just as it is:  I will pay the rent of it.”

“What good is the house to me?”

“Can’t you hear me out?  It will be good to you to live in, I suppose; or you can set it on fire, and wipe it off the face of the earth, for what I care.  I can give you five hundred pounds down——­”

“Five hundred pounds!  And what will you live on until your October dividends come in?  On credit, I suppose.  Do you think you can impose on me by flourishing money before me?  I will never take a halfpenny from you; no, not if I starve for it.”

“Thats all nonsense, Susanna.  You must.”

“Must I?  Do you think you can make me take your money as you made me sit down here? by force!”

“I only offer you what I owe you.  Those debts——­”

“I dont want what you owe me.  If you think it mean to leave me, you shant plaster up your conscience with bank notes.  You would like to be able to say in your club that you treated me handsomely.”