But here he was interrupted by an avalanche of words that must have been dammed up in me for all the fifteen years of my life for that special occasion, and I delivered them with an eloquence that must have equaled that famous valedictory of Colonel Stockell’s at the Byrd Academy, the year he left for the war.  I told him just what a lonely life had been broken into by the sunshine of Roxanne’s and Lovelace Peyton’s and his family affection for me, and now they were just the core of my heart, which he was wounding.  I described in detail how I had suffered when Roxanne and Lovelace Peyton had been hungry, and had been brought to the dishonesty of feeding him in private, with never a word of my suffering to hurt that Byrd family pride that they are turning as a weapon on me.  I even mentioned the patches on his trousers and the break in Roxanne’s shoes that had been patches and rents in my own heart.  I tried to make them see how hard it had been when I have been commanded to buy things for people that I didn’t care about hardly at all, except as fellow-beings, when I was hungry to give what was needed to my most beloved.  By this time I had got to the point of exaltation, and Roxanne had hid her head on my shoulder, while that Idol’s eyes were so wide with astonishment that I thought he would never be able to get them to normal size again.  “And after Lovelace Peyton has hurt himself in my cause, as he did from hearing that I wanted an explosion,” I still ruthlessly continued, “you want to deny me the happiness of getting his eyes saved by my own unaided efforts.  When I was disgraced and humiliated, I put that kind of pride I had aside and came to you when you called me because you needed me, trusting in your friendship for me and love of me, but now that the time has come for you to yield just a little bit of your pride, you won’t do it for me.”

Here I paused, and a thought of explanation for their cruelty came over me.  “Because I am my father’s daughter, do you think this money I have made is tainted, too?  And is that the reason why you don’t want to use it?”

“Oh, Phyllis!” Roxanne gasped under my chin, and the Idol got as white as a sheet and his eyes looked like I had struck him a blow.

“You can’t get the money from the telegraph office and give it to me quick enough, kiddie,” he said, with the choke coming out clear in his voice.  “Forgive me!  The youngster’s eyes will be twice the value saved in such a way,” and he took my hand and held it in both of his against his heart, in a manner to make me feel that never again would I have to struggle with that Byrd pride.

“Please forgive me for fighting you like that,” I said with a horrible blush of memory coming over me as I thought of all I had said, about the patches on the trousers especially.  “You made me do it and—­”