hy shouldn't I?" she exclaimed, angered at the brazen confession.
"You're my brother, aren't you? Why should you have any place that I
couldn't come. Well, I like that--and from you to me."

"Listen, Louise," went on Lester, drawing himself up further on one
elbow. "You know as much about life as I do. There is no need of our
getting into an argument. I didn't know you were coming, or I would
have made other arrangements."

"Other arrangements, indeed," she sneered. "I should think as much.
The idea!"

She was greatly irritated to think that she had fallen into this
trap; it was really disgraceful of Lester.

"I wouldn't be so haughty about it," he declared, his color rising.
"I'm not apologizing to you for my conduct. I'm saying I would have
made other arrangements, which is a very different thing from begging
your pardon. If you don't want to be civil, you needn't."

"Why, Lester Kane!" she exclaimed, her cheeks flaming. "I thought
better of you, honestly I did. I should think you would be ashamed of
yourself living here in open--" she paused without using the
word--"and our friends scattered all over the city. It's
terrible! I thought you had more sense of decency and
consideration."

"Decency nothing," he flared. "I tell you I'm not apologizing to
you. If you don't like this you know what you can do."

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "This from my own brother! And for the sake of
that creature! Whose child is that?" she demanded, savagely and yet
curiously.

"Never mind, it's not mine. If it were it wouldn't make any
difference. I wish you wouldn't busy yourself about my affairs."

Jennie, who had been moving about the dining-room beyond the
sitting-room, heard the cutting references to herself. She winced with
pain.

"Don't flatter yourself. I won't any more," retorted Louise. "I
should think, though, that you, of all men, would be above anything
like this--and that with a woman so obviously beneath you. Why, I
thought she was--" she was again going to add "your housekeeper,"
but she was interrupted by Lester, who was angry to the point of
brutality.

"Never mind what you thought she was," he growled. "She's better
than some who do the so-called superior thinking. I know what you
think. It's neither here nor there, I tell you. I'm doing this, and I
don't care what you think. I have to take the blame. Don't bother
about me."

"Well, I won't, I assure you," she flung back. "It's quite plain
that your family me