to--and I can do nothing to prevent it--nothing in the wide world--I am
completely and absolutely helpless--you coward, you!"

When that awful word, the worst word that a woman can use to a man, left
my lips, a flame shot up into his eyes that I thought would burn me up,
but in a half second it was extinguished by the strangest thing in the
world--for the situation--a perfect flood of mirth. He sat down in his
chair and shook all over, with his head in his hands, until I saw tears
creep through his fingers. I had calmed down now so suddenly that I was
about to begin to cry in good earnest when he wiped his eyes and said
with a low laugh in his throat--

"The case is yours, Molly, settled out of court, and the
'possession-nine-points-of-the-law clause' works in some cases for a
woman against a man. Generally speaking, anyway, the pup belongs to the
man who can whistle him down, and you can whistle Bill from me any day.
I'm just his father, and what I think or want doesn't matter. You had
better take him and keep him!"

"I intend to," I answered haughtily, uncertain as to whether I had
better give in and be agreeable, or stay prepared to cry in case there
was further argument. But suddenly a strange diffidence came into his
eyes, and he looked away from me as he said in queer hesitating words--

"You see, Mrs. Molly, I thought, from now on, your life wouldn't have
exactly a place for Bill. Have you considered that you have trained him
to demand you all the time and all of you? How would you manage
Bill--and--and other claims?"

And if there is a contagious thing in this world it is embarrassment. I