“He looked,” her husband replied, “like the Blue Bonnets coming over the border—­that’s what he looked like.  Then he went down to the Sawdust Pile like a raging demon, cleaned it out in two twos, and put it to the torch.  You be careful what you say to people, Mary.  Get that boy started once, and he’ll hark back to his paternal ancestors; and if The Laird has ever told you the history of that old claymore that hangs on the wall in The Dreamerie, you know that the favorite outdoor sports of the McKaye tribe were fighting and foot-racing—­with the other fellow in front.”

“The Laird is mild enough,” she defended.

“Yes, he is.  But when he was young, he could, and frequently did, whip twice his weight in bear-cats.  Old as he is to-day, he’s as sound as a man of forty; he wouldn’t budge an inch for man or devil.”

Mrs. Daney carefully folded the Churchman, laid it aside, and placed her spectacles with it.

“Andrew, I know it’s terrible of me to breathe such a thing, but—­did it ever occur to you that—­perhaps—­the father of Nan Brent’s child might be—­”

“Donald?” he exploded incredulously.

She nodded, and about her nod there was something of that calm self-confidence of an attorney who is winning his case and desires to impress that fact upon the jury.

“By God, woman,” cried Daney, “you have the most infernal ideas—­”

“Andrew!  Remember it’s the Sabbath!”

“It’s a wonder my language doesn’t shrivel this paper.  Now then, where in hades do you get this crazy notion?” Daney was thoroughly angry.  She gazed up at him in vague apprehension.  Had she gone too far?  Suddenly he relaxed.  “No; don’t tell me,” he growled.  “I’ll not be a gossip.  God forgive me, I was about to befoul the very salt I eat.  I’ll not be disloyal.”

“But, Andrew dear, don’t you know I wouldn’t dare breathe it to anyone but you?”

“I don’t know how much you’d dare.  At any rate, I’ll excuse you from breathing it to me, for I’m not interested.  I know it isn’t true.”

“Then, Andrew, it is your duty to tell me why you know it isn’t true, in order that I may set at rest certain rumors—­”

“You—­mind—­your—­own—­business, Mary!” he cried furiously, punctuating each word with a vigorous tap of his finger on the arm of her chair.  “The McKayes meet their responsibilities as eagerly as they do their enemies.  If that child were young Donald’s, he’d have married the Brent girl, and if he had demurred about it, The Laird would have ordered him to.”

“Thank you for that vote of confidence in the McKaye family, Andrew,” said a quiet voice.  “I think you have the situation sized up just right.”

Andrew Daney whirled; his wife glanced up, startled, then half rose and settled back in her chair again, for her legs absolutely refused to support her.  Standing at the foot of the three steps that led off the veranda was Hector McKaye!