"There is no use," she said. "I have given you my answer. I shall not go. I shall not permit you to make of my name and position a mere idle convenience. I shall not lend you either one or the other, that it may serve your purpose in presenting to society any adventuress who may have pleased your fancy." Goldwin was very angry at this speech. She had no idea how angry it had made him, as he quietly rose and faced her. "What right have you to call her an adventuress?" he asked. Her eyes flashed as she looked up at him. "Of course she is one. Her husband, too, is an adventurer. They're both trying to push themselves in among the best people. And you are helping them. You are helping him because of her; and you are helping her ... well, you are helping her because of herself." Goldwin gave a smile at this. She perceived, then, how very angry he was. She knew his smile so well that when it came, different from any other she had ever seen on the same lips, it struck her by its cold novelty. "You called upon this adventuress," he said; "you were willing to do that." "Yes--to please you." "Allow that as your reason. You called on her in private to please me. You will not meet her in public to please me. Is not that just how the case stands?" She fixed her eyes on his face. Her feverish look had grown humid. He could plainly note that her lips trembled. She was so alive, now, to a sense of his being very indignant, that this realization frightened her, and she let him see, with pitiable candor, just how much it frightened her. "You are in love with Mrs. Hollister," she murmured. "And--she is in love with you." She showed him the full scope of his power by those few words. He walked toward the door, pausing on its threshold. "I won't remain to hear you insult a woman whom I respect," he said; "you called her an adventuress, which is untrue; you now say something even worse." "Will you deny it?" she asked, rising. Her question had a plaintive, querulous ring, which the circumstances made something more than pathetic. "Will you reconsider your refusal?" he said, making the interrogation a reply. She sank back into her seat again. "No, never!" she exclaimed. "Good night," he returned. He went immediately out into the hall, put on his coat and hat, and left the house. "She will yield," he told himself. "I am sure of it. She showed me that she would if I were only hard enough. I mean to be hard. I can make it up in kindness by and by." He waited three days. No word came to him from Mrs. Lee. But on the fourth word came to him. "I knew it," he thought, as he read her note.