e? You can't help--no matter how hard you
try--you'll only make it worse and worse. And you've been through so much
this year--you've earned the right to be quiet. And that's what _they_
want, both of them--they both want it quiet, without any scandal." Her
father glared, for he knew about scandal, he handled it in his office each
day. "Let me manage this--please," she said. And her offer tempted him. He
struggled for a moment.

"No, I won't!" he burst out in reply. "I want quiet right enough, but not
at the price of her peace with her God!" This sounded foolish, he felt
that it did, and he flushed and grew the angrier. "No, I won't," he said
stubbornly. "She'll go back to him if I take her myself. And what's more,"
he added, rising, "she's to go straight back to-night!"

"She is not going back to-night, my dear." And Deborah caught her father's
arm. "Sit down, please--"

"I've heard enough!"

"I'm afraid you haven't," she replied.

"Very well." His smile was caustic. "Give me some more of it," he said.

"Her husband won't have her," said Deborah bluntly. "He told me so
himself--to-night."

"Did, eh--then _I'll_ talk to him!"

"He thinks," she went on in a desperate tone, "that Laura has been
leading--'her own little life'--as he put it to me."

"_Eh_?"

"He is bringing suit himself."

"_Oh! He is_!" cried Roger hoarsely. "Then I _will_ talk to this young
man!" But she put out a restraining hand:

"Father! Don't try to fight this suit!"

"You watch me!" he snarled. Tears showed in her eyes:

"Think! Oh, please! Think what you're doing! Have you ever seen a
divorce-court--here, in New York? Do you know what it's like? What it _can_
be like?"

"Yes," Roger panted. He did know, and the picture came vividly into his
mind--a mass of eager devouring eyes fixed on a girl in a witness chair.
"To-morrow I see a lawyer!" he said.

"No--you won't do that, my dear," Deborah told him sadly. "Laura's husband
has got proofs."

Her father looked up slowly and glared into his daughter's face.

"I've seen them myself," she added. "And Laura has admitted it, too."

Still for a moment he stared at her. Then slowly he settled back in his
chair, his eyes dropped in their sockets, and very carefully, with a hand
which was trembling visibly, he lifted his cigar to his lips. It had gone
nearly out, but he drew on it hard until it began to glow again.

"Well," he asked simply, "what shall we do?"

Sharply Deborah turne