When that awful word, the worst word that a woman can use to a man, left my lips, a flame shot up into his eyes that I thought would burn me up, but in a half-second it was extinguished by the strangest thing in the world—­for the situation—­a perfect flood of mirth.  He sat down in his chair and shook all over with his head in his hands until I saw tears creep through his fingers.  I had calmed down so suddenly that I was about to begin to cry in good earnest when he wiped his eyes and said with a low laugh in his throat: 

“The case is yours, Molly, settled out of court, and the ‘possession-nine-points-of-the-law clause’ works in some cases for a woman against a man.  Generally speaking, anyway, the pup belongs to the man who can whistle him down and you can whistle Bill from me any day.  I’m just his father and what I think or want doesn’t matter.  You had better take him and keep him!”

“I intend to.”  I answered haughtily, uncertain as to whether I had better give in and be agreeable or stay prepared to cry in case there was further argument.  But suddenly a strange diffidence came into his eyes and he looked away from me as he said in queer hesitating words: 

“You see, Mrs. Molly, I thought from now on your life wouldn’t have exactly a place for Bill.  Have you considered that you have trained him to demand you all the time and all of you?  How would you manage Bill—­and—­and other claims?”

And if there is a contagious thing in this world it is embarrassment.  I never felt anything worse in all my life than the shame that swept over me in a great hot wave when that look came into his eyes and made me realize just exactly what I had been saying to him, about what, and how I had said it.  I stood perfectly still, shook all over like a leaf, and wondered if I would ever be able to raise my eyes from the ground.  A dizzy nauseated feeling for myself rose up in me against myself and I was just about to turn on my heels and leave him, I hoped for ever, when he came over and laid his hand on my shoulder.

“Molly,” he said in a voice that might have come down from heaven on dove wings, “you can’t for a moment feel or think that I don’t realize and appreciate what you have been to the motherless little chap, and for life I am yours at command, as he is.  I really thought it would be a relief to you to have him taken away from you for just a little while right now, and I still think it is best; but not unless you consent.  You shall have him back whenever you are ready for him, and at all times both he and I are at your service to the whole of our kingdoms.  Just think the matter over, won’t you, and decide what you want me to do?”

Something in me died for ever, I think, when he spoke to me like that.  He’s not like other men and there aren’t any other men on earth but him!  All the rest are just bugs or bats or something worse.  And I’m not anything myself.  There’s no excuse for my living and I wish I wasn’t so healthy and likely to go on doing it.  It was all over and there was nothing left for me to live for, and before I could stop myself I buried my face in my hands.