That evening Frederick Graves shook in his shoes when he returned home and received Waldstricker's message to meet him in the library at nine o'clock. If there was one person in the world he didn't want to see just then, it was his dictatorial brother-in-law. He stood in his room considering the situation, when he heard the grandfather's clock on the stairs slowly strike the hour of nine.
"Well, it won't help any to keep him waiting," he muttered.
Unwillingly, he walked down the stairs to the library door. Pausing, he saw Ebenezer seated at the table reading the Bible.
"Come in and sit down," greeted the latter, curtly.
"Thanks," said Frederick, taking a chair. "Mind if I smoke?"
The man thus addressed made no answer. He read a verse or two partly aloud as if to himself, then closed the book and laid it on the table.
"What's the matter between you and Madelene?" he inquired presently, fixing Frederick with a steady gaze.
"Nothing.... Nothing, that I'm to blame for. Madelene followed me to the lake and found me in Skinner's shack. That's all the row was about."
"Why were you there?" Waldstricker did not change his tone.
Frederick threw his cigarette into the smoldering grate and shrugged his shoulders impatiently.
"Can't a fellow stop in a shanty without the whole town gossiping about it?" he demanded peevishly.
"That's just it, Frederick. I don't want people talking about my sister's husband and a squatter girl," the older man explained. "I must know why you were there."
"Look at here, Eb," exclaimed the boy, "why don't you let Madelene and me fight out our own quarrels? I don't interfere with you and Helen."
"Huh! I should hope not!" growled Waldstricker. "But quarrels are not what we're talking about.... Why were you in the Skinner hut?... Are you in love with that girl?"
"God! No! Are you mad? What's the matter with everybody?"
"There's nothing the matter, my boy, only I want to warn you I won't have my sister unhappy."
"She makes herself unhappy," growled Frederick, selecting another cigarette from his case.
"I can't see any use of your going down there at all," Ebenezer went on, turning to poke the fire. "It doesn't look well after the things that happened in your family."
"That's just it," said Frederick, using the elder's words as an excuse; "our trouble makes it quite proper some one of my family should go there. The girl did enough for us, God knows."
Waldstricker gave a decided negative shake of his head.
"It's your mother's place to go, not yours. You don't want a scandal, do you?... Let her go there if any one does."