Margaret Cameron

“ Karr," he said. "My wife—here beside me. These other ladies, like yourself, we have just—"
Marjorie, who had twisted in her seat in an effort to help Karr with the rug, had seen him look for the first time at his companions in the tonneau, and now she clutched her husband's arm. Dolliver turned to see in the lightning's flickering glare the two young people staring into each other's agitated faces, while the grandmother's expression was one of stern rigidity. For a few seconds the only sound was of the pouring rain and the crashing thunder. Then the grandmother spoke. ”

“ When this belief proved to be unfounded, the tentative engagement between you—"
"It was not tentative! Why do you all persist in belittling it?" contended Natalie. "Whatever may have happened since, we were formally and definitely engaged, with the full consent of the family!"
"I repeat, the tentative engagement ended at once, automatically," continued Mrs. Toland, unmoved. "Under no circumstances would Miss Brainard's family permit her to associate with—much less to marry—a man of lax morals and dissipated habits." ”

“ Have we passed many?"
"Several," said Dolliver. Just then, by one of the coincidences in which life abounds, he leaned forward, attracted perhaps by some vague familiarity of outline or attitude, to look more sharply at a man standing in the comparative protection of the high hedge surrounding a country place, at the same time exclaiming: "Why, that looks like—no, it isn't. Yes," as a brilliant flash of lightning made everything distinct for an instant, "by George, it is!" He stopped the car, hastily explaining to the ladies in the tonneau: "Here's a man I know. ”

“ It didn't come, and as we knew our hostess had another engagement we decided to set out on foot. Our friends protested, but we had no idea it would rain so soon, and we expected to meet the car any minute, and—so here we are, thanks to you, when otherwise we might be drowning under that leaky little tree back there. You ought to be given a life-saving medal."
"Oh, we like to!" eagerly began Marjorie, and then, remembering that the automobile game was over, she finished, politely: "I mean, one is glad, of course, to do what one can. ”

“ By your own confession you choose your friends from among persons whose habit it is to frequent resorts of that character, and you regard the whole matter so lightly that, even accepting your defense at its face value, your unprincipled curiosity led you to countenance and encourage by your presence a practice universally condemned by all right-thinking people. ”

“ Karr was evidently holding himself in strong restraint.
"The facts speak for themselves," she returned, with cold finality. "The men of our circle do not figure in gambling-house scandals, Mr. Karr."
Marjorie shot a quick glance at Dolliver, who winked reassuringly, shrugged a shoulder ever so slightly, and brushed away an imaginary cobweb with a little movement of his fingers.
"Oh, Rob, why were you there?" appealed the girl. "There must be some explanation!"
"Mr. Karr's reasons for visiting places of that character cannot concern us in the least, Natalie," admonished her grandmother. ”

“ Karr, makes any explanation futile," was her sharp retort. "A man may step from my drawing-room into the police court, if his inclinations lead him that way—but he cannot return to my drawing-room."
"Score one for grandmother," murmured Dolliver in his wife's ear.
Marjorie's hands were clenched, her eyes brilliant and her cheeks pink with excitement.
"But is that all?" cried Natalie.
"All?" echoed her grandmother. "What do you mean?"
"Why—there must have been something more—something worse—than that! Rob, on your word of honor, was that all that happened?" ”

“ Toland," pressed the young man, "that as Natalie's fiancé it was my right to explain this thing to her, and her right to hear me if she wished? Has it occurred to you that we are individuals, living our own lives?" ”

“ Holmes has a conscience of his own, in perfectly good working order. He doesn't need mine. He has also a lot of money, and it is distinctly none of my business what he does with it. I have already told you that I went solely out of curiosity."
"Page, I like that man!" impulsively breathed Marjorie.
Dolliver nodded, smiling, and bent over the wheel, trying to see the road ahead. The rain still fell heavily, but the lightning had almost ceased and the thunder was dying away in distant rumbles.
"And does that seem to you a very lofty or a very adequate motive, Mr. Karr?" inquired Mrs. Toland. ”

“ But on no account let us take you out of your way in this storm," she urged, whereupon Marjorie stole a triumphant glance at her husband, but found him unresponsive and apparently unmoved by this evidence of consideration on the part of their passengers.
"It will be quite simple to leave you at Meadowvale," he said. "Either road is convenient for us. It's the second turn to the right, isn't it?"
"I think so. At any rate, you turn just beyond the Stanfords', that large place with the stone wall and the wrought-iron gates. Meadowvale is less than a mile beyond." ”

“ Moreover, you force me to remind you that we are not alone, and that this is essentially a family matter."
"It is essentially a matter concerning Natalie and me, Mrs. Toland," asserted the young man. "I begin to suspect that the family has already assumed a much larger part in it than is just to either of us—and I'm going to find out, here and now."
"Bully for you!" muttered Dolliver, but only Marjorie heard. "More power to your elbow!"
"Natalie, didn't any of my messages reach you?" asked Karr. ”

“ Toland's:
"I think you forget, grandmother, that Mr. Karr has made it perfectly clear that he has as little desire to meet us as—as we have to meet him."
"Why do you say that?" demanded the young man. "How can you say that?"
"Never mind now," interposed Mrs. Toland. "This is neither the time nor the place to discuss it. Can't you drive faster, Mr. Dolliver? Haven't we passed the Stanford gate yet?"
"I think we're not far from it," Page replied. "It's impossible to make much speed in this downpour. The road's too slippery. Is the rain driving in at all back there?" ”

“ It was done by Sutphen Brown and is called one of his masterpieces, which in itself is enough to make a man want to see it. Then we've been hearing a good deal lately about the frankness with which these gambling-places are conducted under the very noses of the police, and of the numbers of well-known men who frequent them—notably Gildersleeve's—and when Holmes offered to take me there it occurred to me that it would be interesting to see how much of all this was true and what a gambling-house was like, anyway—and I found out. ”

“ My poor child, all this just shows how necessary it was. Even yet you are unreasoning and irresponsible in this matter—a victim of the strange sort of infatuation a young girl occasionally conceives for a man entirely unworthy of her. ”

“ Believing that my granddaughter herself would perceive with experience that she would be much wiser to marry a man of her own circle, who could give her the social position to which she is accustomed and for which she has been rather brilliantly equipped, as well as the means to enjoy it. ”

“ A man doesn't do that, you know."
"But you never even tried!" she retorted, sharply. "You never came—never telephoned—"
"Never tried! Never camel What do you mean?" Both were talking at once, and neither paid the slightest attention to Mrs. Toland, who was vainly trying to check their impetuous utterances. "Don't you know—"
"You never even answered my letter!" charged the girl, concluding her accusation.
"Letter?" Karr caught at the word. "What letter? I've had no letter from you! Natalie, did you write to me—after—?" ”

“ Hereafter the pathetic, perspiring pedestrians panting along the way may continue to pant, as far as we're concerned, and those who are so ill-advised as to be overtaken by a flood may swim out. This ark's full. ”