"Yes, how dared you ask that girl to come here when I dislike her? You know how I hate her----"

Mr. King tossed his cigar into the grass, gravity settling on his countenance.

"I hadn't the slightest idea you disliked her," he said.

Molly eagerly advanced into the space between them.

"She is trying to gain some sort of influence over you, Theo, just the same as she got over that Jewish cobbler."

Theodore King gazed in amazement at the reddening, beautiful face. Surely he had not heard aright. Had she really made vile charges against the girl? To implicate Jinnie with a thought of conspiracy brought hot blood about his temples. He wouldn't stand that even from an old-time friend. Of course he liked Molly very much, yes, very much indeed, but this new antagonistic spirit in her---"What's the matter with you, Molly?" he demanded abruptly. "You haven't any reason to speak of the child that way."

"The child!" sneered Molly. "Why, she's a little river rat--a bold, nasty----"

Theodore King raised his great shoulders, throwing back his closely cropped head. Then he sprang to refute the terrible aspersion against the girl he loved.

"Stop!" he commanded in a harsh voice, leaning over the panting woman. "And now I'll ask you how you dare?" he finished.

Molly answered him bravely, catching her breath in a sob.

"I dare because I'm a woman.... I dare because I know what she's doing. If she hadn't played her cards well, you'd never've paid any attention to her at all.... No one can make me believe you would have been interested in a--in a----"

The man literally whirled from the porch, bounded into the motor, turned the wheel, and shot rapidly away.




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