"You must return them. There will be a terrible scandal if you do not," replied his mother. "I have sold them and spent the money," he returned with inimitable coolness. "Good heavens! what will you do?" she cried; and to her indignation he laughed out aloud as he said: "You and Alpine will have to make up the four thousand between you, and pay Kathleen!" "I will not!" came in a burst of rage from Alpine's lips, and her mother echoed it. "I will not!" The son leaned back indolently in his chair, not a whit moved by their anger. They always _had_ come round to his demands. They would have to do it now. "Would you bring disgrace on yourselves by having me sent to prison to save a paltry four thousand dollars?" he demanded, with the air of one who is master of the situation. They glared at him aghast. The two women loved money passionately. It made them almost frantic the way that Ivan squandered it. "You two are rolling in wealth," he continued, "and yet you begrudge a poor devil of a son and brother a few thousand to get him out of a penitentiary scrape." The listeners shuddered. Next to money, they loved good repute, and it was the dread of their lives that the dissolute Ivan would bring disgrace upon them. And here it was staring them in the face. The penitentiary, ugh! "We have spent at least fifteen thousand dollars on you since we came into this fortune!" groaned Alpine. "And what you ever did with so much money, in so short a time, I can not imagine," added Mrs. Carew. "Fast living and cards," laconically replied the villain. They looked at each other, the two badgered women, and one thought was in the mind of each. Ivan was shameless, defiant. He would never alter his evil courses and if he went on like this, and they had to supply him with money, he would bankrupt them in the end. Disgrace would come to them sooner or later through this black sheep. Alpine turned to him and asked curiously: "How did you find out that Kathleen had left her diamonds at the jewelers?" He started and whitened at the suddenness of the question, but answered, doggedly: "That is my own secret, and I do not choose to disclose it." "Neither do I choose to help you out of the scrape you have brought on yourself. Not a dollar will I give you!" retorted Alpine, stung to defiance and rebellion by his matchless assurance. He did not believe her, and smiled as he answered: "Oh, yes, you will, for your own sake, my dear sister. Perhaps you think I don't see through your little game; but I do. You're trying to marry Ralph Chainey, the great actor, although he does not care a pin for you. However, you are crafty enough to hook him, I'll be bound--only, he certainly would not look at you again if Kathleen sent your only brother to prison for stealing her diamonds." Her blue eyes blazed on him with the steely glare of a bitter hate; but she said, almost as if begging him to do better: