hement. "I did the
right thing, I tell you! In heaven's name, I'd like to know what
else there was for anybody in my position to do! It would have been a
dreadful thing for me to just let matters go on and not interfere--it
would have been terrible! What else on earth was there for me to do? I
had to stop that talk, didn't I? Could a son do less than I did? Didn't
it cost me something to do it? Lucy and I'd had a quarrel, but that
would have come round in time--and it meant the end forever when I
turned her father back from our door. I knew what it meant, yet I went
ahead and did it because knew it had to be done if the talk was to be
stopped. I took mother away for the same reason. I knew that would help
to stop it. And she was happy over there--she was perfectly happy. I
tell you, I think she had a happy life, and that's my only consolation.
She didn't live to be old; she was still beautiful and young looking,
and I feel she'd rather have gone before she got old. She'd had a good
husband, and all the comfort and luxury that anybody could have--and how
could it be called anything but a happy life? She was always cheerful,
and when I think of her I can always see her laughing--I can always hear
that pretty laugh of hers. When I can keep my mind off of the trip home,
and that last night, I always think of her gay and laughing. So how on
earth could she have had anything but a happy life? People that aren't
happy don't look cheerful all the time, do they? They look unhappy
if they are unhappy; that's how they look! See here"--he faced her
challengingly--"do you deny that I did the right thing?"

"Oh, I don't pretend to judge," Fanny said soothingly, for his voice and
gesture both partook of wildness. "I know you think you did, George."

"Think I did!" he echoed violently. "My God in heaven!" And he began to
walk up and down the floor. "What else was there to do? What, choice did
I have? Was there any other way of stopping the talk?" He stopped, close
in front of her, gesticulating, his voice harsh and loud: "Don't you
hear me? I'm asking you: Was there any other way on earth of protecting
her from the talk?"

Miss Fanny looked away. "It died down before long, I think," she said
nervously.

"That shows I was right, doesn't it?" he cried. "If I hadn't acted as
I did, that slanderous old Johnson woman would have kept on with her
slanders--she'd still be--"

"No," Fanny interrupted. "She's dead. She dropped dead with apo