“What?”

“I’m going to be married to-morrow—­and I’ve got to support my wife—­ decently...”

“It’s that little Frazer girl who was crying all over my office to-day,” said Lightener, deducing the main fact with characteristic shrewdness.  “And your father wouldn’t have it—­and threw you out...or did the thing that stands to him for throwing out?”

“I got out.  I had gotten out before.  Yesterday morning. ...  Somebody told him I’d been going to see Ruth—­and he was nasty about it.  Called it a liaison. ...I—­I burned up and left the office.  I haven’t been back.”

“That accounts for his calling me up—­looking for you.  You had him worried.”

“Then I got to thinking,” said Bonbright, ignoring the interruption.  “I was going back because it seemed as if I had to go back.  You understand?  As if there was something that compelled me to stick by the Family. ...”

“How long have you been going to marry this girl?”

“She said she would marry me to-night.”

“Engaged to-night—­and you’re going to marry to-morrow?”

“Yes. ...And I went home to tell father.  Mother was there—­”

Lightener sucked in his breath.  He could appreciate what Bonbright’s mother’s presence would contribute to the episode.

“—­and she was worse than father.  She—­it was rotten, Mr. Lightener—­ rotten.  She said she’d never receive Ruth as her daughter, and that she’d see she was never received by anybody else, and she—­she forced father to back her up. ...There wasn’t anything for me to do but get out. ...I didn’t begin to wonder how I was going to support Ruth till it was all over with.”

“That’s the time folks generally begin to wonder.”

“So I came right here—­because you can give me a job if you will—­and I’ve got to have one to-night.  I’ve got to know to-night how I’m going to get food and a place to live for Ruth.”

“Um!...We’ll come to that.”  He got up and went to the door.  From thence he shouted—­the word is used advisedly—­for his wife and daughter.  “Mamma. ...  Hilda.  Come here right off.”  He had decided that Bonbright’s affairs stood in need of woman’s counsel.

Mrs. Lightener appeared first.  “Why, Bonbright!” she exclaimed.

“Where’s Hilda?” asked Lightener.  “Need her, too.”

“She’s coming, dear,” said Mrs. Lightener.

There are people whose mere presence brings relief.  Perhaps it is because their sympathy is sure; perhaps it is because their souls were given them, strong and simple, for other souls to lean upon.  Mrs. Lightener was one of these.  Before she knew why Bonbright was there, before she uttered a word, he felt a sense of deliverance.  His necessities seemed less gnawing; there was a slackening of taut nerves. ...

Then Hilda appeared.  “Evening, Bonbright,” she said, and gave him her hand.