ailed.

"Out of what damnation novel did you get that idea?" he raged.

"It seemed to be a good plan, Richard. I swear by everything sacred I
thought it would come out all right. Don't rave at me." Her voice sunk
to an appealing whisper. She picked up a book from her table. "If you
will only listen--"

"So you did get it out of a novel! My God! what have your fool ideas
done to me?"

"How do you dare to talk to Kate's mother like that?"

"I am not talking to Kate's mother, I tell you! I'm talking to a woman
who has put me into a hell on earth. I'm talking to you, Mrs. Kilgour,
and you don't know the whole story yet."

"All my life it has been the same--only trouble and sorrow and to be
misunderstood." She began to sob.

"Is there anything in that novel about ringing in an iceman to break
up a marriage? I say it was all a conspiracy. You didn't intend to be
square. You intended to rig a scheme so that you could duck out from
under. You have always done that, Mrs. Kilgour."

"I had nothing to do with that man coming in."

"Don't try to fool me any more. You told me to come, didn't you? You
must have told some yarn to your daughter to have her come."

"I did--it was all--"

"And then you told that plug-ugly to come in, too, and break it up so
as to queer me. Why did I ever fall for such lunacy? If I hadn't been
desperate I would never have let you drag me into such a devilish
scheme. But now you have got to do your part to square me. It's going to
be straight talk from now on, Mrs. Kilgour. There must be a settlement
between us."

She looked away from him. She was plainly searching her soul for excuses
to postpone that settlement.

"That person who came in, Dicky! I swear I did not arrange any such
thing. He is only an iceman. I don't know the man. It was some accident.
If the matter hadn't been interrupted! It was going along all right."

"What's the matter with your intellect? You know it wasn't going along
at all! You simply had us chasing shadows. Good God! I ought to have
made you tell me what you were planning. Think of it! Think of me
waltzing down there like a boob and thinking you had something real to
offer."

"But you frightened her with that jailbird. You should have brought a
real clergyman."

"The man I brought has the power to perform marriages! I would have made
a nice spectacle towing a clergyman into that mess, wouldn't I?"

She broke in upon his further speech. She wrung her hands,