A feeling of helplessness came over Trafford. The curious irritation Mr. Pope always roused in him began to get the better of him. His face flushed hotly. "Oh really! really! this is--this is nonsense!" he cried. "I never heard anything so childish and pointless as your objection----" "Be careful, sir!" cried Mr. Pope, "be careful!" "I'm going to marry Marjorie." "If she marries you, sir, she shall never darken my doors again!" "If you had a thing against me!" "_Haven't_ I!" "What have you?" There was a quite perceptible pause before Pope fired his shot. "Does any decent man want the name of Trafford associated with his daughter. Trafford! Look at the hoardings, sir!" A sudden blaze of anger lit Trafford. "My God!" he cried and clenched his fists and seemed for a moment ready to fall upon the man before him. Then he controlled himself by a violent effort. "You believe in that libel on my dead father?" he said, with white lips. "Has it ever been answered?" "A hundred times. And anyhow!--Confound it! I don't believe--_you_ believe it. You've raked it up--as an excuse! You want an excuse for your infernal domestic tyranny! That's the truth of it. You can't bear a creature in your household to have a will or preference of her own. I tell you, sir, you are intolerable--intolerable!" He was shouting, and Pope was standing now and shouting too. "Leave my house, sir. Get out of my house, sir. You come here to insult me, sir!" A sudden horror of himself and Pope seized the younger man. He stiffened and became silent. Never in his life before had he been in a bawling quarrel. He was amazed and ashamed. "Leave my house!" cried Pope with an imperious gesture towards the door. Trafford made an absurd effort to save the situation. "I am sorry, sir, I lost my temper. I had no business to abuse you----" "You've said enough." "I apologise for that. I've done what I could to manage things decently." "Will you go, sir?" threatened Mr. Pope. "I'm sorry I came," said Trafford. Mr. Pope took his stand with folded arms and an expression of weary patience. "I did what I could," said Trafford at the door. The staircase and passage were deserted. The whole house seemed to have caught from Mr. Pope that same quality of seeing him out.... "Confound it!" said Trafford in the street. "How on earth did all this happen?"...