ried to
explain.

"I feel sorry for you, but you can't imagine how painful it is to us to
think that Mathilde came so near to being mixed up with a crooked deal
like that--Mathilde, of all people. You ought to see that for yourself."

"I see it, thank you," said Pete.

"Really, Mr. Wayne, I don't think that's quite the tone to take," put
in Adelaide.

"I don't think it is," said Wayne.

Mathilde, making one last grasp at self-control, said:

"They wouldn't be so horrid to you, Pete, if they understood--" But the
muscles of her throat contracted, and she never got any further.

"I suppose I shall be thought a very cruel parent," said Adelaide, almost
airily, "but this sort of thing can't go on, really, you know."

"No, it really can't," said Mr. Lanley. "We feel you have abused our
confidence."

"No, I don't reproach Mr. Wayne along those lines," said Adelaide. "He
owes me nothing. I had not supposed Mathilde would deceive me, but we
won't discuss that now. It isn't anything against Mr. Wayne to say he has
made a mistake. Five years from now, I'm sure, he would not put himself,
or let himself be put, in such an extremely humiliating position. And I
don't say that if he came back five years from now with some financial
standing I should be any more opposed to him than to any one else. Only
in the meantime there can be no engagement." Adelaide looked very
reasonable. "You must see that."

"You mean I'm not to see him?"

"Of course not."

"I must see him," said Mathilde.

Lanley looked at Wayne.

"This is an opportunity for you to rehabilitate yourself. You ought to be
man enough to promise you won't see her until you are in a position to
ask her to be your wife."

"I have asked her that already, you know," returned Wayne with an attempt
at a smile.

"Pete, you wouldn't desert me?" said Mathilde.

"If Mr. Wayne had any pride, my dear, he would not wish to come to a
house where he was unwelcome," said her mother.

"I'm afraid I haven't any of that sort of pride at all, Mrs. Farron."

Adelaide made a little gesture, as much as to say, with her traditions,
she really did not know how to deal with people who hadn't.

"Mathilde,"--Wayne spoke very gently,--"don't you think you could
stop crying?"

"I'm trying all the time, Pete. You won't go away, no matter what
they say?"

"Of course not."

"It seems to be a question between what I think best for my daughter as
opposed to what you think best--for