Thirty years of training at the bar barely saved Williams from laughing aloud; the solution was so simple and so complete. The recollection flashed through his mind of the daughter of a friend of his, who when discovered in the act of smoking a cigar explained that she had promised her mother never to smoke a cigarette. He took himself in hand. The thing was serious and must be stopped. Evidently the word "sacrifice" had applied not to the loss of an income of fifty thousand dollars but to the resignation of the less tangible asset--reputation. Miss Southgate was already rolling out a magnificent invective. Doris Helen did not attempt to interrupt her. She sat still, with her eyes raised with interested surprise to Antonia's angry face. Only once she spoke. She said quietly, "No, not as my lover, Antonia--as my secretary." "And what difference does it make--what you call it?" "Antonia!" Mrs. Southgate's tone protested. "It makes a great deal of difference what it is." Her sister-in-law felt the reproach. "I mean, no one will believe it, no one will care--the scandal will be the same." Doris made gesture with her thin hands as if one couldn't go changing all one's plans for every shred of gossip that drifted across the horizon. "One only cares what one's friends say," she explained, "and I haven't any friends--except you, Antonia." "Are you utterly indifferent to the name of an honorable man who was your husband?" "While my husband lived I tried to do my duty to him," said Doris firmly. "I gave my whole life to it, and my reward is that he tries to reach out of the grave and prevent my having the normal freedom that any woman of my age ought to have." Williams had only to look into her set little face to see that it was hopeless to argue with her, but he had hopes of Hale. He had formed a favorable opinion of the young man and simply did not believe he was a party to any such plan. "I should like to have a talk with Hale," he said. "He's gone out of town," answered Doris. "He won't be back until a day or two before we sail." Antonia gave a sound between a bleat and a whinny. "You're sailing on the same steamer?" "Of course--with my secretary." She left the room. In the course of the next few minutes Williams was surprised to discover the words included in the vocabulary of so majestic a woman as Antonia. There was nothing she did not call her sister-in-law, although she ended each sentence with an assertion that she wouldn't really do it. "I wouldn't count on that," said Williams. "Most people are restrained by the opinion of their social group; but, as Mrs. Southgate says, she doesn't seem to have any group." "Do you forget there is such a thing as a moral sense?" asked Antonia. "If you had listened attentively," he replied, "you would have gathered as I did that there is nothing contrary to morals in this plan of your sister-in-law's--a lack of convention, yes." "We will not allow it," said Antonia.