"Your mother was an unusual woman, my boy." "The unusual is what I have always admired." "You are too young to be so unelastic." "I'm too young to forego my ideal, Mr. Devant." Presently Saxton entered the room with a tray of glasses and a bottle. After he was gone, Mr. Devant took up the subject anxiously. "I was your father's friend, Dick, your mother's too, for that matter. I do not want you to do a mad thing in the heat of resentment. Katharine Ogden is a rare woman, a woman who will be the one thing needful to make your success in life secure. Her fortune will place you above the necessity of struggling. You can paint as genius moves and give the public only your best. She is beautiful; she loves you, is proud of you, and knows the world, the world that may be yours, in every detail. She is your ideal, my boy, your ideal, lost for a moment in the fog." Thornly listened, and suddenly Janet's simile recurred to him: "It comes to me just as Davy's Light comes of an early morning when the fog lifts!" The memory brought a tugging of the heartstrings. "You have scattered the fog, Mr. Devant," he answered. "I own I was in rather a mist, but you bring things out most distinctly!" "And you will not go to Katharine at once? You see I am presuming upon old friendship and a sincere liking for you." "I only wish there were a night train!" Thornly gave vent to a long, relieved breath. "You hold to your purpose, Dick? I feel that but for me this might not have occurred. I should have restrained the child that day." "I shall tell Katharine all, Mr. Devant. I am sure she will ask me to release her from a tie that can be only galling for us both." "You will be playing the fool, Dick,"--a note of anger rang in the deep voice,--"a fool, and something worse. Gentlemen do not play fast and loose with a woman like Katharine Ogden!" "I am sorry you judge me so harshly." Thornly flushed. "I should hardly think myself worthy the name of man, if I followed any other course. To marry Katharine with this between us would be sheer folly. To refer to it must in itself bring about the result I expect. I have no desire to enter Katharine's world and she has no intention of adopting mine. She has always believed I would use my success as a step to mount to her. That her world is less than mine has never occurred to her." "But if the girl loves you?" "She does not love _me_. Had she loved me, she must have spoken since--that day." Mr. Devant arose uneasily and walked about the room, then he came back and drew his chair close to Thornly's. "Will you take a glass of my--wine?" he asked huskily. Thornly was about to decline, but changed his mind. "Thanks, I will," he said instead. And the two sipped the port together.