. Now she goes to dance. What for? To make a no-good
out of her--a creature to be ashamed of?"

"Oh no, papa," replied Jennie. "It isn't as bad as that. This is an
awful nice school. Lester says she has to go."

"Lester, Lester; that man! A fine lot he knows about what is good
for a child. A card-player, a whisky-drinker!"

"Now, hush, papa; I won't have you talk like that," Jennie would
reply warmly. "He's a good man, and you know it."

"Yes, yes, a good man. In some things, maybe. Not in this. No."

He went away groaning. When Lester was near he said nothing, and
Vesta could wind him around her finger.

"Oh you," she would say, pulling at his arm or rubbing his grizzled
cheek. There was no more fight in Gerhardt when Vesta did this. He
lost control of himself--something welled up and choked his
throat. "Yes, I know how you do," he would exclaim.

Vesta would tweak his ear.

"Stop now!" he would say. "That is enough."

It was noticeable, however, that she did not have to stop unless
she herself willed it. Gerhardt adored the child, and she could do
anything with him; he was always her devoted servitor.

CHAPTER XXXIX

During this period the dissatisfaction of the Kane family with
Lester's irregular habit of life grew steadily stronger. That it could
not help but become an open scandal, in the course of time, was
sufficiently obvious to them. Rumors were already going about. People
seemed to understand in a wise way, though nothing was ever said
directly. Kane senior could scarcely imagine what possessed his son to
fly in the face of conventions in this manner. If the woman had been
some one of distinction--some sorceress of the stage, or of the
world of art, or letters, his action would have been explicable if not
commendable, but with this creature of very ordinary capabilities, as
Louise had described her, this putty-faced nobody--he could not
possibly understand it.

Lester was his son, his favorite son; it was too bad that he had
not settled down in the ordinary way. Look at the women in Cincinnati
who knew him and liked him. Take Letty Pace, for instance. Why in the
name of common sense had he not married her? She was good looking,
sympathetic, talented. The old man grieved bitterly, and then, by
degrees, he began to harden. It seemed a shame that Lester should
treat him so. It wasn't natural, or justifiable, or decent. Archibald
Kane brooded over it until he felt that some change ought to b