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The greed in the old man's eyes shot Dyckman's eyes with blood. He snarled: "So it's the plain old blackmail, eh? Well, you can go plumb to hell!" "All right," said Adna, felicitously, "but we won't go alone. I and daughter will have comp'ny. Come on, Mr. Beattie." After they had gone Jim realized that his hatred of being gouged had involved Charity's priceless reputation.
"So I hear." "You had fair warning, then, from your woman?" "Which one?" said Cheever, with his irresistible impudence. That was the fulminate that exploded Dyckman's wrath. "You blackguard!" he roared, and plunged. His left hand was out and open, his great right fist back. As he closed, it flashed past him and drove into the spot where Cheever's face was smirking. But the face was gone.
She said nothing, but wore one of her most popular smiles, that look of wistful sweetness that had melted countless of her movie worshipers. She was caught from Mrs. Dyckman's shadow by Jim's father, who said, "Don't I get a kiss?" and took one. Kedzie returned this kiss and found the old gentleman very handsome, not in the least like her father.
"Me criticized? Jim pitied? Why? For what?" "For the things you do, my dear, the places you go, and the hours you keep and the friends you keep." "That's disgusting!" Kedzie snarled. "The long-tongued gossips! They ought to be ashamed of themselves." Mrs. Dyckman's fever began to mount. She dropped Kedzie's hand and tugged at the coverlet. "You'd better go, my dear. I apologize. It's useless!
Connery inserted the key stealthily into the lock, turned it, opened the door in silence, and let Gilfoyle slip through. He followed and closed the door without shock. They heard Kedzie's murmurous tones and the rumble of Dyckman's answer. Then Gilfoyle strode forward. He saw Kedzie coiled on the floor with her elbows on Dyckman's knees.
"I'm the husband of that shameless woman; that's who I am," Gilfoyle shrilled, a little cowed by Dyckman's stature. "Oh, you are, are you!" said Dyckman. "Well, you're the very chap I'm looking for. Come in, by all means." Connery, seeing that the initiative was slipping from Gilfoyle's flaccid hand, pushed forward with truculence. "None of that, you big bluff!
Housed with her sick and terrified imagination for companion, she had imagined nearly everything dismal. And now, when, by the mere laws of gravitation, she had floated into Jim Dyckman's arms for a moment, she heard the popular doom of them both in the joke he attempted: "Charity, I've got to marry you to make you an honest woman."
The baby was not interested, but the nurse was, and when she rode out with the baby she told the chauffeur. The chauffeur used the story as a weapon of scorn to tease Jim Dyckman's new valet with. Jules would have gone into a frenzy of denial, but Jules was by now wearing the livery of his country in the trenches.
Any woman might have blazed with pride at being asked to marry Jim Dyckman. The little villager was almost consumed like another Semele scorched by Jupiter's rash approach. In Dyckman's clasp Kedzie felt how lonely she had been. She wanted to be gathered in from the dangers of the world, from poverty and from work.
When she got it she did not know just when to wear it, for she was going out but rarely, and then she did not want to be conspicuous. She decided to make Jim Dyckman's call the occasion for the launching of the gown. His name came up long before she had put it on to be locked in for the evening.
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