He went back into the bar, swallowed a glass of whisky, and went out and hailed a cab.  He directed the driver to carry him to the Trelawny Apartment.

Mrs. Kilgour admitted him to the vestibule of the suite.

“Is Kate at home?” he demanded.

“Yes, Richard!” She shrank away from him, for his aspect was not reassuring.  “You know—­she has given up her work—­she is—­”

“I know all about it, Mrs. Kilgour.  But I want to ask you whether she has given up her work in order to marry me at once?”

“Why, I—­She said—­I think it will come about all right, Dicky.”  She was pitifully unnerved.

“Have you told her why she must marry me?”

“It is not time to tell her—­it is not right—­I can’t—­”

He seized her arm and pulled her into the sitting-room.  The daughter rose and faced them, reproof and astonishment mingling in her expression.

“This thing is going to be settled here and now,” said the lover, roughly.  “There is going to be no more fooling.  Has your mother put this matter up to you so that you understand it, Kate?”

“She has told me that she owes you five thousand dollars,” returned the girl.  Her eyes flashed her contempt.  “You told me that yourself.  I repeated the statement to her and she admits it.”

“But did she tell you how it happens that she owes me that money?”

“For God’s sake, Richard, have some pity!  This is my own daughter.  I will sell everything.  I will slave.  I will pay you.  Kate, for my sake—­for your own sake, tell him that you will marry him.”

“I will not marry this man,” declared the girl.  “It has been a mistake from the beginning.  As to your business with him, mother, that is not my affair.  You must settle it.”

“You belong in the settlement,” declared Dodd.  “Hold on!  Don’t leave this room, Kate.”

He reached out his hands to intercept her, and Mrs. Kilgour, released, fell upon the floor and began to grovel and cry entreaties.

But his raucous tones overrode her appeals.

“We’re all together in this.  I am five thousand dollars shy in the state treasury, Kate.  I took that money and loaned it to your mother when she begged me to save her stocks.  But she didn’t have any stocks.”

Mrs. Kilgour grasped his knees and shook him.  But he kept on.

“She had embezzled from Dalton & Company.  What I did saved her from prison and you from disgrace, Kate.  And now I am in the hole!  Listen here!  There’s hell to pay in this state just now!  The soreheads are banding together.  A man has just offered to bet me big money that there’s going to be an overturn in the State House departments.  I don’t know whether it will happen—­but you can understand what kind of torment I’m in.  Kate, are you going to let me stand this thing all alone?”

The girl stood silent and motionless in the middle of the room.

She did not weep or faint.  Her face displayed no emotion.  It was as white as marble.