d I?" "Because you're a gentleman, and I'm not, and it
ain't right I should be over you. If you want to go, I know some
parties that would be glad to get you. I will give you up if you want
to go before anything worse happens, and I shan't blame you. I can
help you to something better than I can offer you here, and I will."

"There's no question of my going, unless you wish it," said Corey. "If
you do----"

"Will you tell your father," interrupted Lapham, "that I had a notion
all the time that I was acting the drunken blackguard, and that I've
suffered for it all day? Will you tell him I don't want him to notice
me if we ever meet, and that I know I'm not fit to associate with
gentlemen in anything but a business way, if I am that?"

"Certainly I shall do nothing of the kind," retorted Corey. "I can't
listen to you any longer. What you say is shocking to me--shocking in
a way you can't think."

"Why, man!" exclaimed Lapham, with astonishment; "if I can stand it,
YOU can!"

"No," said Corey, with a sick look, "that doesn't follow. You may
denounce yourself, if you will; but I have my reasons for refusing to
hear you--my reasons why I CAN'T hear you. If you say another word I
must go away."

"I don't understand you," faltered Lapham, in bewilderment, which
absorbed even his shame.

"You exaggerate the effect of what has happened," said the young man.
"It's enough, more than enough, for you to have mentioned the matter to
me, and I think it's unbecoming in me to hear you."

He made a movement toward the door, but Lapham stopped him with the
tragic humility of his appeal. "Don't go yet! I can't let you. I've
disgusted you,--I see that; but I didn't mean to. I--I take it back."

"Oh, there's nothing to take back," said Corey, with a repressed
shudder for the abasement which he had seen. "But let us say no more
about it--think no more. There wasn't one of the gentlemen present
last night who didn't understand the matter precisely as my father and
I did, and that fact must end it between us two."

He went out into the larger office beyond, leaving Lapham helpless to
prevent his going. It had become a vital necessity with him to think
the best of Lapham, but his mind was in a whirl of whatever thoughts
were most injurious. He thought of him the night before in the company
of those ladies and gentlemen, and he quivered in resentment of his
vulgar, braggart, uncouth nature. He recognised his own allegi