"Oh, well--really, Mr. Loveland, please don't push me into a discussion of such matters. Few men are saints, and I think he'll make a good husband. He is very rich and he moves in the best circles." "Does Nannie love him?" asked Steve, and his voice and manner had changed. He spoke very firmly. "Mr. Loveland, you _exhaust_ me! Some of us who have reached maturity have the good sense to provide for material advantages and take the rest for granted." "If Nannie loves Mr. Harding and wishes me to withdraw in his favor, I will do so." "I don't!" said a curt voice, and looking around with a start, Mrs. Lamont beheld her dutiful niece between the _portieres_. For a moment nothing was said, but Nannie's appearance did not portend peace. Her eyes looked out wickedly from beneath her curls, and her impish mouth was pursed up in an expression already familiar to her aunt. "Leave the room instantly!" cried Mrs. Lamont at last with rising anger. "I won't!" said Nannie shortly. "Then I will teach you that I also can be firm. I command you to break off this foolish, insane affair at once." "I won't!" said Nannie. "Ungrateful minx!" cried Mrs. Lamont. "Here I have dressed you all these years and gone to no end of other expense, and this is how you repay me." "It is," said Nannie. Now, Mrs. Lamont was a shrewd, worldly woman, and she took in the situation fully. She realized that Nannie would hold to her own course. She also realized that arguments such as hers were without weight with Steve. These two, then, would marry for all she could say or do, for Nannie was just come of age. Now she had already strained her means to provide for the fashionable necessities of Nannie's _debut_ and society life, and she dreaded her wedding. Had the child married well, however, all the monetary effort attendant upon the occasion could have been repaid afterward--all that and more; but now to have an outlay and no return--that was too much! She would avert it. "I can do nothing with this saucy, impudent girl, this ungrateful creature, but I appeal to you," she said to Steve, "to let her come to her senses." It was Mrs. Lamont, he thought, who was worse than mad to try to force a young girl into an odious marriage, and Nannie's rebellion seemed justifiable to him, unused though he himself was to defying any one. "Nannie and I have decided," he said quietly. "I regret that you feel so." "You shall never be married from this house!" cried the aunt. "We can go elsewhere," said Steve, not realizing that he was walking into a net. "And you may expect a bitter time after this conduct, miss," she added. "Mrs. Lamont," said Steve, stepping forward and taking Nannie's little hand in his, "you will force us to an earlier marriage than we had contemplated."