"Why, then, have you, and others in your business, enticed him to drink? He would not have been in the sad state he is to-day, sir, if he had not been tempted to do wrong. Would to God, for my poor mother's sake" (and as she mentioned her mother's name her eyes filled with tears), "he would never again put foot in this place. Father!" she said, walking over to him, and putting her hand affectionately on his arm, "you will come, will you not?" "Yes, my girl, I will," answered her father, who, though very much under the influence of liquor when she so unexpectedly made her appearance, seemed considerably sobered by what had transpired. He also keenly felt the degradation of having his pure, gentle young daughter in a place with such surroundings. "I will, my girl," he reiterated; "and what you said was true. I was waylaid and tempted, and I believe it was all planned by him and others of the same profession. Had it not been for this, you would not have found me here to-day, and would also have been spared this degradation. But if I and others had not been weak their schemes would have failed." "If you or any one else say I enticed you, or employed any other person to do so, I say, in reply, it is a lie!" said Porter; and he not only looked at Ashton as he spoke, but also at his daughter. Ashton was maddened by the insulting remarks which were evidently intended for both. He turned almost savagely to Porter, and said: "You dastardly ruffian! if you were not a coward you would not insult a young girl." As he said this, he struggled to get away from Allie, as if he would fly at Porter; but she threw her arms around him, and, crying piteously, begged him to come home. "Oh, father!" she said, "I want to leave this horrible place. Oh! don't say anything, but come home." "You had better leave," said Porter; "and if you were not an old man, and your daughter was where she should be--at home--I would knock you down. I would allow no man who was able to defend himself to say so much to me without making him sorry for it." "You wouldn't," said a tall, athletic young man, stepping forward as he spoke. "Well, I will give you an opportunity to make good your words. I say that the man who is contemptible enough to make use of the language you have, in the presence of a young lady, is a bully, a brute, and a miserable coward. Now, make good your boast." Porter, stung by the epithets applied to him, sprang with the fury of a tiger at the young man who thus defied him; but if he expected to surprise him by the suddenness of his attack, or to crash him with his vast bulk, he counted without his host, for the young man, with the agility of a cat, stepped to one side, and, as he did so, struck Porter such a blow that he fell to the floor as one dead. He then turned to Allie as if nothing had happened, and said, with gentle courtesy: "Miss Ashton, this is no place for you; if you will leave, I will accompany Mr. Ashton and you home."