"Then you have got it--you've made the discovery--it'll work?" "Our machines not only will work, but have been working," said he calmly. "I haven't seen fit to tell your father. I'm going to tell you, however, that all this was _my_ idea from the first. If I haven't been a competent manager, let him get some one more competent. I'll take what I know with me in my own head. I'm saying to you, his daughter, that _I_ worked out this idea, myself, and all he did was to get the money in the first place for it. For that reason I call this discovery mine, to do with as I like. I haven't been bought and paid for, myself. I don't want money when it costs too much. I've just begun to understand things lately." "Yes, I've worked it out into practical form," he concluded, as she sat silent. "Your father never did and never can. He's got to come to _me_, to _me_, right here. Since you drive me to it, I'll just tell you one thing. I've had this whole thing in my own hands for more than eight months! The company doesn't know it, he doesn't know it, no one knows it. I've been just waiting--to see whether I had a wife or not." "You never told? Then you've been disloyal, you've been a coward! You took his money--" "All right," said Halsey suddenly, grimly, "that's all I need. I see, now. I know what to do now." "But you _didn't_ tell father!" she went on fiercely. "And we all knew how much has been depending on that factory. Weren't we all in that--didn't we all help, from the very first? Didn't I?" "Yes, you did, you and your mother," said Halsey. "You've had or will have all you earned. She got divorced from her husband, you may get divorced from me! It's a fine world, isn't it? We've all been chasing for more money. Well, here we are! There's a couple over there, here's another one here. Fine, isn't it?" VI "But, Charles!" She moved toward him and laid a hand on his arm. "You don't stop to reflect on what you are saying! If you have that secret in your hands, why, don't you see--don't you _see_--" "What do you mean?" "Why, even Pa _will_ have to come to you! You won't be poor then." "I should say he _would_ have to come to me!" said Charles Halsey slowly. "Yes, I dare say. I dare say, also, I could make a lot of money whether he did or didn't." "Listen, Charley. He's got everything, and he wants everything. He's my father, but he doesn't care. He--he sold me out. What do we owe to him and _her_? What did he do to my mother? I tell you, he thinks of no one but _himself_. Yet you and I--we who found that idea and worked it out, who have it in our own hands now, as you say--you and I have got the whip in our own hands now, it seems to me." "You talk excellent business sense, Mrs. Halsey. I compliment you. It seems that you begin to discover something in your husband and his possibilities. It's a trifle late, but you delight me!"