“I shall not allow that woman under the same roof with Natalie.”

“As usual, you choose the most inconvenient occasion for insisting upon your personal dislikes.”

“My dislike has nothing to do with the matter.  I overlooked her behavior with you last year—­as I have overlooked a good many things in the past—­but this is asking too much.”

Gordon’s coldness matched her own as he said: 

“I repeat, this is no time for jealousy—­”

“Jealousy!  It’s an insult to Natalie.”

“Miss Golden is one of our largest stockholders.”

“That’s not true!  I had Denny look up the matter.”

“So!” Gordon flared up angrily.  “Denny has been showing you the books, eh!  He had no more right to do that than you had to pry into my affairs.  While Miss Golden’s investment may not be so large as some others’, she has influential friends.  She did yeoman service in the cause, and I can’t allow your foolish fancies to interfere with my plans.”

“Fancies!” cried the woman, furiously.  “You behaved like a school-boy with her.  It was disgraceful.  I refuse to let her associate with my daughter.”

“Aren’t we drawing rather fine distinctions?” Gordon’s lip curled.  “In the first place, Natalie has no business here.  Since she came, uninvited, for the second time, she must put up with what she finds.  I warned you last summer that she might suspect—­”

“She did.  She does.  She discovered the truth a year ago.”  Mrs. Gerard’s usually impassive face was distorted and she voiced her confession with difficulty.

“The devil!” ejaculated Gordon.

The woman nodded.  “She accused me last night.  I tried to—­lie, but—­God!  How I have lived through these hours I’ll never know.”

“Hm-m!” Gordon reflected, briefly.  “Perhaps, after all, it’s just as well that she knows; she would have found it out sooner or later, and there’s some satisfaction in knowing that the worst is over.”

Never before had his callous cynicism been so frankly displayed.  It chilled her and made the plea she was about to voice seem doubly difficult.

“I wish I looked upon the matter as you do,” she said, slowly.  “But other people haven’t the same social ideas as we.  I’m—­ crushed, and she—­Poor child!  I don’t know how she had the courage to face it.  Now that she has heard the truth from my own lips I’m afraid it will kill her.”

Gordon laughed.  “Nonsense!  Natalie is a sensible girl.  Disillusionment is always painful, but never fatal.  Sooner or later the young must confront the bald facts of life, and I venture to say she will soon forget her school-girl morality.  Let me explain my views of—­”

“Never!” cried the woman, aghast.  “If you do I shall—­” She checked herself and buried her face in her hands.  “I feel no regrets for myself—­for I drifted with my eyes open—­but this—­ this is different.  Don’t you understand?  I am a mother.  Or are you dead to all decent feeling?”