The stammering, broken voice of Sir Andrew tore into the sudden silence.
The old man was struggling up out of his chair, and from the detaining
arms of wife and daughter, face livid, lips twitching, the vein in his
transparent temple standing out like a piece of blue whip-cord. His
clenched hand shook in the air, trembling with the force that he put
into it.

"Stop it! How dare you say such words to my wife--how dare you! You
shall pay for this, Ross Duggan, and pay dearly! To-night I alter my
will--to-night I strike your name from it forever and make the estates
over to someone else. But your name goes out of it--as you
do--_to-night_!... Paula, your arm."

He swung toward his wife with all the dignity of his years and his
inheritance, and took the arm she held out to him, clinging to it as a
child to its mother's skirts, and falteringly left the room, where his
words had fallen upon those remaining like the sword of Damocles itself.
Ross had gone white--deathly white, as had Maud Duggan herself--and all
the indignity of this thing before a stranger to their household showed
itself in his tense countenance.

"Gad! I'll go--and go _now_!" he rapped out, in a very fever of fury and
outraged pride. "And glad to get away, too! Such an infernal hell-nest
of a place as _she_ has made out of a decent British home!"

"Ross! She's my mater, you know."

"Sorry, old chap! I forgot for a moment. But it shan't occur again. I'll
be off, Maud, and get along to Cynthia's. She'll have something to say
about this, I daresay, and her Guv'nor will probably give me a leg-up in
finding a job. I'm better out of this. Mr. Deland, you've been the
unwilling victim of an unpleasant scene--and a family scene, which is
most unpleasant of all. I must apologize to you. Had I foreseen anything
of the sort, we would have postponed your luncheon until a later date.
It might have been more agreeable for you. Good-bye, and I'm sorry I
shan't see more of you. I'm clearing off now, Maud--you can send along
my things later."

Maud Duggan's eyes searched his face, a look in them of agonized
question, as if she was unable to believe the evidence of her own ears.
Then she ran to him and caught him suddenly by the arm.

"Ross, dear, you mustn't be so hasty! You mustn't!" she entreated,
squeezing his arm in her two hands as he looked down at her with his
set, angry face. "You know Father, dear. He'll wish in half an hour,
he'd bitten his tongue out soone