l, and perforce contented himself with an explicit statement of
his opinion:

"You were never more bull-headed in your life," he snorted, stopping
short in his agitated pacing of the drawing-room, to face his niece with
a scowl; "and that's saying a great deal--a very great deal!"

"James!" Mrs. Delancy exclaimed, in mild remonstrance.

But Cicily was not to be suppressed by this man who typified the evils
against which she had fought.

"Would you have me give up my principles?" she questioned, scornfully.

Once again, Mr. Delancy snorted contemptuously.

"You haven't got any principles," he declared, baldly. "No woman has."

At this brutal statement on the part of her husband, Mrs. Delancy
stiffened, and an exclamation of shocked amazement burst from her.
Cicily smiled cynically, as she addressed her aunt:

"Well, Aunt Emma," she said amusedly, "you see now what your attitude
has led to. You began with no backbone. So, now, you have no principles.
Oh, you nice, sweet-faced, gray-headed, deceiving old-lady reprobate,
you!"

But Mrs. Delancy refused to see any element of humor in the situation.
Indeed, she was on the verge of tears over the wantonly injurious
statement made by the husband whom she had cherished for a lifetime.

"James, how could you!" she cried out, in a voice broken by emotion. "To
say such things to your wife--oh!"

Too late, the irascible husband realized that he had committed a serious
fault, had in fact been guilty of a gross injustice, which was hardly
less than an insult, to the woman whom he thoroughly respected.

"Emma--" he began, appealingly.

But Mrs. Delancy had changed in an instant from tearful reproach to
righteous indignation.

"No, don't speak to me!" she commanded; and she deliberately turned her
back on the culprit.

Under the goad of this treatment, Delancy addressed his niece in a tone
that was almost ferocious.

"So," he snarled, "not content with breaking up your own home, you'd
try to ruin mine, would you! You should apologize to your Aunt Emma, at
once."

"Dear Auntie," Cicily exclaimed without a moment's hesitation, in a
voice of contrition, "I beg you to let me apologize to you very humbly
for what Uncle James said."

"What the--!" stormed the badgered old gentleman. "Now, look here,
Cicily. You think you're very smart. But do you know what your attitude
has led to?--Scandal!"

Mrs. Delancy forgot for the moment her own subject for complaint.

"Yes,"