“Damn you!” he cried. “Jimmie, she's yours, and a father's got a right to do anything he likes to his own daughter. Give it to her proper if she don't come across with the truth!” Jimmie stepped closer to her and bared his yellow teeth. “I haven't given you a basting since you were fifteen--but I'll paste you one right in the mouth if you don't talk straight talk!” “You hear that!” Barney gritted at her. He believed there was justice in his wrath--as indeed there was, of a sort. “Think what Jimmie and I've put into this, in time and hard coin! We've given you your chance, we've made you! And then, after hard work and waiting and our spending so much, and everything comes out exactly as we figured, you go and throw us down--not just yourself, but us and our rights! Now you talk straight stuff! Tell us, why did you refuse Sherwood when he proposed? And why did you tell me that lie about his not proposing?” Maggie realized she was in a desperate plight, with these two inflamed gazes upon her. Never had she felt so little of a daughter's liking for Old Jimmie as now when she looked into his lean, harsh, yellow-fanged face. And she had no illusions about Barney. He might love her, as she knew he did; but that would not be a check upon his ruthlessness if he thought himself balked or betrayed. Just then her telephone began to ring. She started to move toward it, but Barney's grip checked her short. “You're going to answer me--not any damned telephone! Let it ring!” The bell rang for a minute or two before it stilled its shrill clamor. Its ringing was in a way a brief respite to Maggie, for it gave her additional time to consider what should be her course. She realized that she dared not let Barney believe at this moment that she had turned against him. Again she fell back upon her cool, self-confident manner. “You want to know why? The answer is simple enough. I thought I might try out an improvement of our plan--something that might suit me better.” “What's that?” Barney harshly demanded. “Since Miss Sherwood fell for me so easy, it struck me that she'd be pretty sure to fall for me if I told her the whole truth about myself. That is, everything except our scheme to play Dick for a sucker.” “What're you driving at?” “Don't you see? If she forgave me being what I am, and I rather think she would, and with Dick liking me as he does--why, it struck me as the best thing for yours truly to marry Dick for keeps.” “What?” Though Barney's voice was low, it had the effect of a startled and savage roar. “And chuck us over-board?” “Not at all. If I married Dick for keeps, I intended to pay you a lump sum, or else a regular amount each year.” “No, you don't!” Barney cried in the same muffled roar. “Perhaps not--I haven't decided,” Maggie said evenly. “I've merely been telling you, as you requested me, why I did as I did. I refused Dick, and lied to you, so that I might have more time to think over what I really wanted to do.”