which he put her aside. He had taken Suzanne's hand, he, her husband,
and was begging her to be calm.

"Oh, Eugene," said Angela desperately, frightened and horrified, her
anger half melted in her fears, "you don't know what you are doing!
Suzanne doesn't. She won't want anything to do with you when she does.
Young as she is, she will have too much womanhood."

"What are you talking about?" asked Eugene desperately. He had no idea
of what Angela was driving at, not the faintest suspicion. "What are you
talking about?" he repeated grimly.

"Let me say just one word to you alone, not here before Suzanne, just
one, and then perhaps you will be willing to let her go home tonight."

Angela was subtle in this, a little bit wicked. She was not using her
advantage in exactly the right spirit.

"What is it?" demanded Eugene sourly, expecting some trick. He had so
long gnawed at the chains which bound him that the thought of any
additional lengths which might be forged irritated him greatly. "Why
can't you tell it here? What difference can it make?"

"It ought to make all the difference in the world. Let me say it to you
alone."

Suzanne, who wondered what it could be, walked away. She was wondering
what it was that Angela had to tell. The latter's manner was not exactly
suggestive of the weighty secret she bore. When Suzanne was gone, Angela
whispered to him.

"It's a lie!" said Eugene vigorously, desperately, hopelessly. "It's
something you've trumped up for the occasion. It's just like you to say
that, to do it! Pah! I don't believe it. It's a lie! It's a lie! You
know it's a lie!"

"It's the truth!" said Angela angrily, pathetically, outraged in her
every nerve and thought by the reception which this fact had received,
and desperate to think that the announcement of a coming child by him
should be received in this manner under such circumstances that it
should be forced from her as a last resort, only to be received with
derision and scorn. "It's the truth, and you ought to be ashamed to say
that to me. What can I expect from a man, though, who would introduce
another woman into his own home as you have tonight?" To think that she
should be reduced to such a situation as this so suddenly! It was
impossible to argue it with him here. She was ashamed now that she had
introduced it at this time. He would not believe her, anyhow now, she
saw that. It only enraged him and her. He was too wild. This seemed to
infuriate h