"But surely," interrupted Alicia, "you respect his position—his——"
"No, m'm; I respect a man because he behaves like a man, not because he lives in a marble palace on Riverside Drive."
Alicia looked pained. This girl was certainly impossible.
"But surely," she said, "you realized that when you married Howard you—you made a mistake—to say the least?"
"Yes, that part of it has been made pretty plain. It was a mistake—his mistake—my mistake. But now it's done and it can't be undone. I don't see why you can't take it as it is and—and——"
She stopped short and Alicia completed the sentence for her:
"—and welcome you into our family——"
"Welcome me? No, ma'am. I'm not welcome and nothing you or your set could say would ever make me believe that I was welcome. All I ask is that Howard's father do his duty by his son."
"I do not think—pardon my saying so," interrupted Alicia stiffly, "that you are quite in a position to judge of what constitutes Mr. Jeffries' duty to his son."
"Perhaps not. I only know what I would do—what my father would have done—what any one would do if they had a spark of humanity in them. But they do say that after three generations of society life red blood turns into blue."