at Christmas."

"Don't you think you could tone him down?" pleaded Mrs. Wayne. "He does
so much harm."

"But I don't want him toned down. His value to me is his being just as he
is. He's a myth, a hero, a power on the water-front, and I employ him."

"You employ him, but do you control him?" asked Adelaide, languidly, and
yet with a certain emphasis.

Her husband glanced at her.

"What is it you want, Adelaide?" he said.

She gave a little laugh.

"Oh, I want nothing. It's Mrs. Wayne who wants you to do
something--rather difficult, too, I should imagine."

He turned gravely to their guest.

"What is it you want, Mrs. Wayne?"

Mrs. Wayne considered an instant, and as she was about to find words for
her request her son spoke:

"She'll tell you after dinner."

"Pete, I wasn't going to tell the story," his mother put in protestingly.
"You really do me injustice at times."

Adelaide, remembering the conversation of the morning, wondered whether
he did. She felt grateful to him for wishing to spare Mathilde the
hearing of such a story, and she turned to him with a caressing
graciousness in which she was extremely at her ease. Mathilde,
recognizing that her mother was pleased, though not being very clear why,
could not resist joining in their conversation; and Mrs. Wayne was thus
given an opportunity of murmuring the unfortunate Anita's story into
Vincent's ear.

Adelaide, holding Pete with a flattering gaze, seeming to drink in every
word he was saying, heard Mrs. Wayne finish and heard Vincent say:

"And you think you can get it annulled if only Burke doesn't interfere?"

"Yes, if he doesn't get hold of the boy and tell him that his dignity as
a man is involved."

Adelaide withdrew her gaze from Pete and fixed it on Vincent. Was he
going to accept that challenge? She wanted him to, and yet she thought he
would be defeated, and she did not want him to be defeated. She waited
almost breathless.

"Well, I'll see what I can do," he said. This was an acceptance.
This from Vincent meant that the matter, as far as he was concerned,
was settled.

"You two plotters!" exclaimed Adelaide. "For my part, I'm on Marty
Burke's side. I hate to see wild creatures in cages."

"Dangerous to side with wild beasts," observed Vincent.

"Why?"

"They get the worst of it in the long run."

Adelaide dropped her eyes. It was exactly the right answer. For a moment
she felt his complete supremacy. Then another thought sh