“You would not wish to marry again?” he repeated.

“Why not?” rising to her feet and confronting him in angry excitement.

“Because, in that case, you would lose your child.  I neither could nor would permit my son to be brought up in the house of a man who stood to him in the relationship you propose.”

“You cannot take him from me,” Mrs. Thorne retorted in defiant contradiction; her ideas of the power of men and lawyers hopelessly vague and bewildered.  “No court on earth would take so small a child from his mother.”

“Ah! you propose having the case come into court then?  I misunderstood you.  I thought you wished the affair managed quietly, to avoid publicity and comment.  Of course, if the case comes into court, I shall contest it, and try to obtain possession of the boy, even for the time the law allows the mother, on the ground of being better able to support and educate him.”

“I do not want the case to come into court here, Nesbit, and you know that I do not!  Why do you delight in tormenting me?”

“Listen to me, Ethel.  I’ve no wish to torment you.  I simply wished to show you that I would abide by my rights, and that I have some power—­all the power which money can give—­on my side.  Our marriage has been a miserable mistake from the first; we rushed into it without knowledge of each other’s characters and dispositions, and, like most couples who take matrimony like a five-barred gate, we’ve come horribly to grief.  I shall not stand in your way; if you wish to go, I shall not hinder you.  This is what I propose:  I’ll help you in the matter, will take all the trouble, make the arrangements, bear all the expense.  It will be necessary for one of us to go to Illinois, and see these lawyers, if the divorce is to be gotten there.  It may be necessary to undergo a short residence in the state in order to simulate citizenship, and make the divorce legal.  I’ll find out about this, and if it’s necessary I will do it.  After the divorce, I’ll allow you the use of this house, and a sufficient income to support it; and also the custody of our son as long as you remain unmarried.  In return, you must waive all right to the boy for the years you can legally claim him, and must bind yourself to surrender him to me, or any person I appoint, at least a month before any such marriage, and never, by word or act, to interfere in his future life, or any disposition I may think best to make of him.  I should also strongly object to any future marriage taking place from my house, and should expect legal notice in ample time to make arrangements about the boy.”

“Would you allow me to see the child whenever I wished?”

“Certainly.  I’m no brute, and you are his mother.  I shall only stipulate that the meetings take place in some other house than yours.  You are at liberty to visit him as often as you like, so long as you are faithful to our agreement and leave his mind unbiased.  I will never mention you unkindly to him, and shall expect the same consideration from you.  When he is old enough to judge between us, he will decide as he thinks right.”