" She said it resolutely, as one who may not be moved.

"Very good; you are your own mistress, and if you elect to be the wife
of a wage-earning mechanic, I suppose it's your own affair."

There was so little heat in the innuendo that it seemed scarcely worth
while to resent it; nevertheless she ventured to say: "Great-grandfather
Vennor was a carpenter, and I suppose he worked for wages."

"Doubtless; but there is the better part of a century between then and
now. However, I presume you have counted the cost. You lose your money,
and that's the end of it--unless Chester happens to marry first."

"What difference would that make? It was I who set the conditions of the
will aside."

"All the difference in the world. In this case, the law takes no
cognizance of intention. If Chester marries first, it would be taken as
_prima facie_ evidence that he had prevented you from fulfilling your
part of the conditions. But that is neither here nor there; Chester is
not exactly the kind of man to be caught in the rebound; and I presume
you wouldn't be mercenary enough to wait for anything so indefinite as
his marriage, anyway."

"No."

"Then you lose your money." He could not forbear the repetition.

"I know it."

"Does your--does the young man know it?"

"Yes; otherwise he would not have spoken."

"No?" There was the mildest suggestion of incredulity in the upward
inflection. "Since you have made your decision, it is as well you should
think so. You are quite willing to begin at the bottom with him, are
you?"

"I am."

"Because I meant what I said last night. You have made your bed, and you
will have to lie on it; you will get nothing from me."

"We ask nothing but--but your good will." Gertrude was as
undemonstrative as the daughter of Francis Vennor had a right to be, but
his coldness went near to breaking down her fortitude.

"My good will!" He turned upon her almost fiercely. "You have no right
to expect it. What has come over you in the last twenty-four hours that
you should override the traditions and training of your whole life? Has
this fellow but to crook his finger at you to make you turn your back
upon everything that is decent and respectable?"

"Don't," she said, with a little sob in her voice; "I can't listen if
you abuse him. I love him; do you understand what that means?"

"No, I don't; you are daft, crazy, hypnotized." The gathering throng was
beginning to make privacy impossible on the platfo