er lived who could. You may
get away with your love affairs, and no one be the wiser; you may make a
crooked or dirty million on a stock deal and no one be the wiser; but
you'll bear the marks to the grave."

"So," mocked the sneering voice of the young Judge, "I suppose you'll
carry the marks of all the men you've bought up in this town for twenty
years."

"Yes, Tom," returned the Doctor pitifully, as he rose and stood beside
the preening young man, "I'll carry 'em to the grave with me, too; I've
had a few stripes to-day."

"Well, anyway," retorted Van Dorn, pulling his hat over his eyes,
restlessly, "you're entitled to what you get in this life. And I'm going
to get all I can, money and fun, and everything else. Morals are for
sapheads. The preacher's God says I can't have certain things without
His cracking down on me. Watch me beat Him at his own game." It was all
a make-believe and the Doctor saw that the real man was gone.

"Tom," sighed the Doctor, "here's the practical question--you realize
what all this means to Laura? And Lila--why, Tom, can't you see what
it's going to mean to her--to all of us as the years go by?"

Their eyes met and turned to the parcel on the floor. "You can't
afford--well, that sort of thing," the Doctor punched the parcel
contemptuously with his cane. "It's all bad enough, Tom, but that way
lies hell!"

Van Dorn turned upon the Doctor, and squared his jaw and said: "Well
then--that's the way I'm going--that way"--he nodded toward the
package--"lies romance for me! There is the road to the only joy I shall
ever know in this earth. There lies life and beauty and all that I live
for, and I'm going that way."

The Judge met the father's beseeching face, with an angry glare--defiant
and insolent.

The Doctor had no time to reply. There was a stir in the house, and a
child's steps came running through the hall. Lila stopped on the porch,
hesitating between the two men. The Doctor put out his arms for her. Van
Dorn casually reached out his hand. She ran to her father and cried,
"Up--Daddy--up," and jumped to his shoulder as he took her. The Doctor
walked down the steps as his daughter came out of the door.

The man and the woman looked at one another, but did not speak. The
father put the child down and said:

"Now, Lila, run with grandpa and get a cooky from granny while your
mother and I talk."

She looked up at him with her blue eyes and her sadly puckered little
face, swallow