"Exactly so," Alan answered, gulping down his discomfort.

The father gazed at him long and steadily.

"Well, I always knew you were a fool," he said at last with

paternal candor; "but I never yet knew you were quite such a fool

as this business shows you. You'll have to marry the girl now in

the end. Why the devil couldn't you marry her outright at first,

instead of seducing her?"

"I did not seduce her," Alan answered stoutly. "No man on earth

could ever succeed in seducing that stainless woman."

Dr. Merrick stared hard at him without changing his attitude on his

old oak chair. Was the boy going mad, or what the dickens did he

mean by it?

"You HAVE seduced her," he said slowly. "And she is NOT stainless

if she has allowed you to do so."

"It is the innocence which survives experience that I value, not

the innocence which dies with it," Alan answered gravely.

"I don't understand these delicate distinctions," Dr. Merrick

interposed with a polite sneer. "I gather from what you said just

now that the lady is shortly expecting her confinement; and as she

isn't married, you tell me, I naturally infer that SOMEBODY must

have seduced her--either you, or some other man."

It was Alan's turn now to draw himself up very stiffly.

"I beg your pardon," he answered; "you have no right to speak in

such a tone about a lady in Miss Barton's position. Miss Barton

has conscientious scruples about the marriage-tie, which in theory

I share with her; she was unwilling to enter into any relations

with me except in terms of perfect freedom."

"I see," the old man went on with provoking calmness. "She

preferred, in fact, to be, not your wife, but your mistress."

Alan rose indignantly. "Father," he said, with just wrath, "if you

insist upon discussing this matter with me in such a spirit, I must

refuse to stay here. I came to tell you the difficulty in which I

find myself, and to explain to you my position. If you won't let

me tell you in my own way, I must leave the house without having

laid the facts before you."

The father spread his two palms in front of him with demonstrative

openness. "As you will," he answered. "my time is much engaged.

I expect a patient at a quarter past ten. You must be brief,

please."




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