"I never heard of her or her sister before I hired them," said his father, reddening. "Dad, be square with me. Do you like her?" "What?" "Do you like Silvette?" "I like her sister." "And Silvette?" "Yes, damn it, I do!" Jack laughed. "So do I," he said; "but she has refused me." "She knew enough to do it; she is a girl of sense. Certainly, I like her. She knows well enough that she has no right to encourage you." "She knows something else, too." "What’s that?" "She knows that she doesn’t care for me anyway," said the boy with a quiet simplicity that, somehow, left a confused and restless resentment in Mr. Rivett’s breast. "Doesn’t care for you?" repeated his father slowly. "She’d care for you fast enough if she dared." "Dared!" Jack laughed. "If she had cared for me, she’d have told me—and sent me about my business all the same; don’t worry about that. But she doesn’t care about me.... I think, sweet and generous as she is, she does not consider our family as particularly desirable for an alliance." "What! My employee!" "Why, dad, our employing her puts us at her mercy. Didn’t you realize that?" The elder man sat silent, glaring at his son through his great convex spectacles. "So _that_ is why this girl wouldn’t listen to you?" he said. "Her reason was that she, being in your employment, occupied a position of trust, and that it would be dishonest in her to take advantage of it by encouraging your only son." "Did she say that?" "Almost word for word." "When?" "Long ago." "Oh! So this has been going on a long while?" "I’ve bothered her a long while; I’ve contrived to make her miserable. She does her best to keep away from me. I don’t know what to do," said the boy miserably. "Well, you’ve done it now, anyway; you’ve come to me, and told me against her orders. Now, she’ll go—if I tell her." "I shall tell her; I couldn’t do this without being honest enough to tell her that I’ve done it." "But—you say she’ll go away." "She certainly will, unless you ask her to remain." "I?" "Yes; you, dad." "Do you think I’m going to deliberately bite my own head off?" Jack smiled forlornly. "If you don’t ask her to stay, you’ll be biting my head off; but I won’t need a head if she goes, so bite away, dad, if you’re going to." Rivett stared at him in stony silence. "Do you know what your sister has done?" "Yes; Inwood is a corker. I’m terribly glad." "Oh, _are_ you!" "Aren’t you?" "Confound it! how do I know whether I’m glad or not to see the house emptying itself of all your mother and I care for—" He stopped with a dry catch in his throat, then resumed more cautiously: