t to be obliged to Stella
and not resent her interference."

"I see that you feel bound to apologize for her," Michael observed.

"Now, that is so bitter."

He shrugged his shoulders.

"I feel rather bitter that she should come charging up to town to find
out things I know already."

"Michael! You knew about Lonsdale?"

"I didn't know about him in particular, but I knew that there had been
people. That's one of the reasons I'm going to marry her."

"But you'll lose all your friends. It would be impossible for you to go
on knowing Lonsdale, for instance."

"Marriage seems to destroy friendships in any case," Michael said. "You
couldn't have a better example of that than Stella and Alan. I daresay I
shall be able to make new friends."

"But, darling boy," she said pleadingly, "your position will be so
terribly ambiguous. Here you are with everything that you can possibly
want, with any career you choose open to you. And you let yourself be
dragged down by this horrible creature!"

"Mother, believe me, you're getting a very distorted idea of Lily. She's
beautiful, you know; and if she's not so clever as Stella, I'm rather
glad of it. I don't think I want a clever wife. At any rate, she hasn't
committed the sin of being common. She won't disgrace you outwardly, and
if Stella hadn't gone round raking up all this abominable information
about her you would have liked her very much."

"My dearest boy, you are very young, but you surely aren't too young to
know that it's impossible to marry a woman whose past is not without
reproach."

"But, mother, you ..." he stopped himself abruptly, and looked out of
the window in embarrassment. Yet his mother seemed quite unconscious
that she was using a weapon which could be turned against herself.

"Will nothing persuade you? Oh, why did Dick Prescott kill himself? I
knew at the time that something like this would happen. You won't marry
her, you won't, will you?"

"Yes, mother. I'm going to," he said coldly.

"But why so impetuously?" she asked. "Why won't you wait a little time?"

"There's no object in waiting while Stella rakes up a few more facts."

"If only your father were alive!" she exclaimed. "It would have shocked
him so inexpressibly."

"He felt so strongly the unwisdom of marriage, didn't he?" Michael said,
and wished he could have bitten his tongue out.

She had risen from her chair, and seemed to tower above him in tragical
and heroic dignity of repro