's Buff handkerchief from_
WOLTON'S _neck_.] What do you mean by going in for all this
tomfoolery, to-night, with ruin and disgrace ready for you in the
morning?

MR. WOLTON. So soon--?

DAWSON. How much longer did you think you could stave it off?

MR. WOLTON. [_Sinks exhausted into a chair._] I didn't know.

DAWSON. Why didn't you tell me your credit was as exhausted in Boston
as here? [_Taking chair from table, and sitting right of_ WOLTON.

MR. WOLTON. I thought, with you doing the negotiating, it mightn't be!

DAWSON. Well, it is; do you hear me, you haven't any such thing as
_credit there_ nor _here!_ nor anywhere, for aught I know! To-morrow
is the last day of grace. Your sister-in-law has to pay this money?

MR. WOLTON. Yes.

DAWSON. What did you let her buy that house for?

MR. WOLTON. [_Testily._] How could I help it! My brother didn't
appoint me her guardian! He simply left her money in trust in my
hands!

DAWSON. "In trust in your hands!" [_Laughs cruelly._

MR. WOLTON. Don't do that!

DAWSON. And you speculated with it, and lost every cent!

MR. WOLTON. Yes.

DAWSON. What a scoundrel you are! [WOLTON _squirms miserably in his
chair._ DAWSON _adds quietly_.] And yet I don't suppose there's at
this moment a more popular man in New York, socially, than you.

MR. WOLTON. No, I don't believe there is!--but a damned lot of good it
does me!

DAWSON. Will your sister-in-law accept her ruin quietly?

MR. WOLTON. No, she's never liked me; she'll take pleasure in exposing
me!

DAWSON. But for your _wife_ and _child's_ sake!

MR. WOLTON. You know very well she _hates them_! They have never taken
her up; she wasn't possible, socially. [DAWSON _laughs again
bitterly_.] _Don't_ do that!

DAWSON. Well, then, after ruining yourself and your brother's wife,
you must ruin your _own_!

MR. WOLTON. [_Alarmed, uneasy_.] What do you mean?

DAWSON. I mean that my sister's own money is enough to pay for your
sister's silence. Don't you understand? Your sister mustn't know, of
course, that you've stolen her fortune. Instead, your wife must be
told,--poor Laura--and for her daughter's sake, she must consent to
beggar herself. Her bonds will about meet the payment of the house
to-morrow--they must be sold the first thing--I will see to it.----
[_As he speaks, he is looking_ WOLTON _straight in the face. Something
in_ WOLTON'S _face grows upon him with conviction as he speaks his
last few words. He breaks