it, Faxon. You're going too far!"

"Is that so?" sneered the older man harshly. "Well, what if I go
farther. I won't take much nonsense from you, my cock."

"You'll get out of this house and stay out...." Roger's eyes were ablaze
and his features worked convulsively. The other, much larger of frame,
glared down at him with a gaze as hot as his own. The atmosphere was
tense.

Then, almost simultaneously the curtains parted and the two sections of
the piazza window swung inward. Baker who had left the two men very
reluctantly, and had returned as soon as he decently could, was present
at the climax. He jumped forward as he saw the two men facing each other
over the narrow table, and comprehended the situation. But he was too
late. He caught an ugly word from Wynrod. Then, with a savage oath,
Faxon's arm shot out.

There was the dull crunch of flesh against flesh, and the younger man
staggered back from the impact; then blind with rage, he sprang forward
again; a crash of shattered glass followed, as the mis-aimed whisky
bottle splintered against the sideboard. Then, simultaneously the three
men became aware of Judith standing white and statuesque in the window,
her eyes ablaze with scorn and repulsion.

Of what was said she had no clear memory afterwards. Roger, belligerent
still, attempted a hot defence, but she silenced him with a cutting
word. Faxon for the first time on record, found his suavity forsake him.
He had been caught by his hostess in a disorderly broil, and his
dapperness was marred with spattered liquor. His rhetoric quite broke
down and he was conscious of making the most awkward exit of his career.

* * * * *

It was fully an hour later, when the house was quiet for the night, that
Judith found Roger nursing a slight but smarting cut on his cheek, where
Faxon's seal ring had grazed it.

"Roger," she said, "that's enough 'first aid,' isn't it? I want to talk
with you."

"Oh, cut it out, Judith. Go to bed. I've had all a fellow can stand for
one evening, without being lectured by you!"

"It can't wait, Roger. I have some things that I must say to you now,
to-night, and you have got to listen. I couldn't sleep if I didn't. I
have waited too long already. If I hadn't, this wretched, vulgar thing
wouldn't have happened.... And with one of your own guests, too."

He straightened at that and lost his sheepish look. "One of my guests?
Not by a million! I wouldn't have