She seemed to be more especially interested in herself, and when Farr departed was fondling into place the masses of her hair before a mirror in the vestibule.  Through the space formed by the portieres he saw Dodd reaching eager hands to the girl, her presence having apparently charmed away his thoughts of vengeance.

The iceman went humbly on his way.

He was meditating on the sacrifice of Captain Andrew Kilgour; he remembered that stalwart men are willing slaves of the weakest women.  He wondered how much of the honesty of the father was in the daughter.  He tried to console himself by insisting that it was not there.  He had had only a limited opportunity to study Richard Dodd.  However, he was convinced that his unflattering estimate of that young man was surely justified; and so certain was he that the character of Dodd must be patent to all he went back to his tasks with a lowered estimate of the girl who would select such a man as husband.  And yet out of the dust of the highway the profile of her face had touched him as his heart never had been touched before; he had plucked the rose and had plodded on behind the little sister of the rose.  He wondered what strange impulse had touched him.  She must be merely like all the rest.  Her graciousness in that first meeting had tempted him to believe that she was different.  Now some consciousness, equally as intangible, suggested to him that she was selfishly selling herself for ease.  His thoughts were pretty much mixed, he acknowledged.  But as he went on, bearing his burdens, listening to the petty tyrants who may ruthlessly taunt the man who comes in by the back door, he was aware that he had full need of much ministration from his new friend, Humility.

In the sitting-room of the Kilgour flat Richard Dodd was telling the mother that he had made application for a marriage license.

“And I have waited long enough,” he declared.  “Mother Kilgour, you must convince Kate that we are to be married within a week.”

And he gave the mother a look which made her turn pale and twist her ringed fingers nervously.

“Kate, what is the use?” she pleaded.  “You are acting like a child.  You love Richard.  You know you love him.  You tell me often that you love him!  Richard is such a dear boy!” She said this fawningly, with evident intent to placate the sullen young man.  Her tone, her air suggested the nervous embarrassment of a debtor who seeks to put off a creditor with flattery and fresh promises.  “Now be a darling child and say that we’ll have the wedding next week without any fuss or feathers.”

“I am not ready to get married, and I simply will not be married just yet,” declared the girl, her red lips compressed.

“You don’t love me!” complained Dodd.

“I like you, Richard,” admitted the girl, frankly, without any coquettishness.  “I have never cared for anybody else.  You have been good to me, except when you were foolish.”