"I particularly asked Kirk not to come here before I had seen you. I
insisted on it. Naturally, he wanted to."

"Of course!"

There was a sneer in his voice which he did not try to hide. It flicked
Ruth like a whip. Her painfully preserved restraint broke up under it.

"Do you think Kirk is afraid of you, father?"

"It crossed my mind."

"He is not."

"I have only your word for it."

"You can have his if you want it. There is the telephone. You can have
him here in ten minutes if you want to see him."

"A very good idea. But, as it happens, I do not want to see him. There
is no necessity. His views on this matter do not interest me. I----"

There was a hurried knock at the door. Bailey burst in, ruffled and
wild as to the eyes.

"Father," he cried, "I don't want to interrupt you, but that infernal
woman, Aunt Lora, has arrived, and says she won't go till she has seen
you. She's downstairs now."

"Not now," said Lora Delane Porter, moving him to one side and entering