Mr. Jeffries shook his head, and moved toward the door.
"I repeat, I have nothing to say."
Annie planted herself directly in his path. He could not reach the door unless he removed her forcibly.
"Mr. Jeffries," she said earnestly, "please don't refuse to hear me—please——"
He halted, looking as if he would like to escape, but there was no way of egress. This determined-looking young woman had him at a disadvantage.
"I do not think," he said icily, "that there is any subject which can be of mutual interest——"
"Oh, yes, there is," she replied eagerly. She was quick to take advantage of this entering wedge into the man's mantle of cold reserve.
"Flesh and blood," she went on earnestly, "is of mutual interest. Your son is yours whether you cast him off or not. You've got to hear me. I am not asking anything for myself. It's for him, your son. He's in trouble. Don't desert him at a moment like this. Whatever he may have done to deserve your anger—don't—don't deal him such a blow. You cannot realize what it means in such a critical situation. Even if you only pretend to be friendly with him—you don't need to really be friends with him. But don't you see what the effect will be if you, his father, publicly withdraw from his support? Everybody will say he's no good, that he can't be any good or his father wouldn't go back on him. You know what the world is. People will condemn him because you condemn him. They won't even give him a hearing. For God's sake, don't go back on him now!"
Mr. Jeffries turned and walked toward the window, and stood there gazing on the trees on the lawn. She did not see his face, but by the nervous twitching of his hands behind his back, she saw that her words had not been without effect. She waited in silence for him to say something. Presently he turned around, and she saw that his face had changed. The look of haughty pride had gone. She had touched the chords of the father's heart. Gravely he said:
"Of course you realize that you, above all others, are responsible for his present position."