onsciously Lewis straightened under
the pressure.

"Listen to this," said Leighton. "The battles of life aren't served up
like the courses at a dinner that you can skip at will. In life we have
to fight. Mostly we have to fight people we love for things we love
better. Sometimes we fight them for the very love we bear them. You and
I are going to fight each other because we can't help it. Let's fight
like gentlemen--to the finish--and smile. My boy, you don't know Folly."

"It's you who don't know Folly, Dad," said Lewis, He tried to smile, but
his lips twitched treacherously. Not since Leighton had gambled with
him, and won all he possessed, had such a blow been dealt to his faith.

CHAPTER XXXV

Both Lewis and his father passed a miserable night, but not even Nelton
could have guessed it when the two met in the morning for a late Sunday
breakfast. Leighton felt a touch of pride in the bearing of his son. He
wondered if Lewis had taken to heart a saying of his: "To feel sullen is
human nature; to show it is ill breeding." He decided that he hadn't, on
the grounds that no single saying is ever more than a straw tossed on
the current of life.

When they had finished breakfast in their accustomed cheerful silence,
Leighton settled down to a long cigar and his paper.

"I suppose you're off to see your lady," he said casually.

Lewis laughed.

"Not yet. She isn't up until twelve ever."

"Doesn't get up until twelve?" said Leighton. "You've found that out,
eh?"

"I didn't say 'doesn't get up'; I said 'isn't.' She gets up early
enough, but it takes her hours. I've never even heard of a woman that
takes such care of herself."

Leighton laid his paper aside.

"By the way," he said, "I've a confession to make to you, one that has
worried me for some days. Your little affair drove it out of my mind
last night."

"Well, Dad, go ahead," said Lewis. "I won't be hard on you."

"Have you any recollection of what you were working on before you went
away?"

For a moment Lewis's face looked blank, then suddenly it flushed. He
turned sharp eyes on his father.

"I left the studio locked," he said.

Leighton colored in his turn.

"I forgive you that," he said quietly. "Just after I came back to town
Vi called and told me she had been posing for you. She said she had left
something in the studio that she wanted to fetch herself. She asked me
for the key."

Lewis's hands were clenched.

"Well?" he asked.