ow," he said when he came back, "we might as well have this out. Dan
has a right to be told, Edith, and he can help us plan something." He
turned to Dan. "It must be kept from your mother, Dan."

"Plan something!" Dan snarled. "I know what to plan, all right. I'll
find the--" he broke into foul, furious language, but suddenly Willy
Cameron rose, and there was something threatening in his eyes.

"I know who it is," Dan said, more quietly, "and he's got to marry her,
or I'll kill him."

"You know, do you? Well, you don't," Edith said, "and I won't marry him
anyhow."

"You will marry him. Do you think I'm going to see mother disgraced,
sick as she is, and let you get away with it? Where does Akers live? You
know, don't you? You've been there, haven't you?"

All Edith's caution was forgotten in her shame and anger.

"Yes, I know," she said, hysterically, "but I won't tell you. And I
won't marry him. I hate him. If you go to him he'll beat you to death."
Suddenly the horrible picture of Dan in Akers' brutal hands overwhelmed
her. "Dan, you won't go?" she begged. "He'll kill you."

"A lot you'd care," he said, coldly. "As if we didn't have enough
already! As if you couldn't have married Joe Wilkinson, next door, and
been a decent woman. And instead, you're a--"

"Be quiet, Dan," Willy Cameron interrupted him. "That sort of talk
doesn't help any. Edith is right. If you go to Akers there will be a
fight. And that's no way to protect her."

"God!" Dan muttered. "With all the men in the world, to choose that
rotten anarchist!"

It was sordid, terribly tragic, the three of them sitting there in the
badly lighted little room around the disordered table, with Ellen grimly
listening in the doorway, and the odors of cooking still heavy in
the air. Edith sat there, her hands on the table, staring ahead, and
recounted her wrongs. She had never had a chance. Home had always been a
place to get away from. Nobody had cared what became of her. And hadn't
she tried to get out of the way? Only they all did their best to make
her live. She wished she had died.

Dan, huddled low in his chair, his legs sprawling, stared at nothing
with hopeless eyes.

Afterwards Willy Cameron could remember nothing of the scene in detail.
He remembered its setting, but of all the argument and quarreling only
one thing stood out distinctly, and that was Edith's acceptance of Dan's
accusation. It was Akers, then. And Lily Cardew was going to marry hi