Ruthless is man toward woman who may have violated the proprieties, but cruel is the son toward his mother if she may have dimmed the honor which is his as well as hers. "Now?" he repeated inflexibly. "Now he has hinted, he has hardly said it, Jack, but he means for me to join him in Europe this summer." The red leaped into Jack's face and the blaze into his eyes. He rose deliberately from his chair, and stood tall before her. "Are you sure he meant it?" he asked. "He put in nasty allusions to the countess, and--Oh, he did mean it, Jack; and it frightened me as I have never been frightened in my life." "I will horsewhip him in the street!" She sprang up, and caught him by the arm. "For heaven's sake, Jack, think of the scandal! I'd have told you long ago, but I was afraid you'd make a row that would be talked about. When I came home from Europe, and realized that all my property is in the hands of trustees so that I couldn't pay, I wanted to tell you; but I didn't know what you'd do. I'm afraid of you when your temper's really up." He freed himself from her clasp and began to pace up and down, while she watched him in silence. Suddenly he turned to her. "But this was only part of it," he said. "What was that stuff you were talking about my being engaged?" She held out to him the note that May had written, and when he had read it explained as well as she could the scene which had taken place between her and May. She did not, it is true, present an account which was without variations from the literal facts, but no mortal could be expected to do that. She at least made it clear that she had bargained with the girl that the letter should be the price of an engagement. Jack heard her through, now and then putting in a curt question. When he had heard it all, he laughed angrily, and threw the letter on the floor. "You have brought me into it too," he said. "We are a pair of unprincipled adventurers together. I've been more or less of a beat, but I've never before been a good, thorough-paced blackguard!" She flashed upon him in an outburst of anger in her turn. "Do you mean that for me?" she demanded. "The word isn't so badly applied to a man that can talk so to his mother! Haven't I been saving you as well as myself? As to May, any girl will love a husband that has character enough to manage her and be kind to her." He was silent a moment, and when he spoke he waived the point. "Do I understand," he said, "that you expect me to go to Count Shimbowski and announce myself as May's representative, and demand her letter?" "Not at all," she answered, a droll expression of craftiness coming over her face. "Sit down, and let me tell you." She resumed her own seat, and Jack, after whirling his chair around angrily, sat down astride of it, with his arms crossed on the back.