"What do you mean?"
"I mean that since we parted in Jersey, Bran, like myself, has neither eaten nor drunk nor been clothed at your expense."
"But...?"
"The exact half of all moneys you have sent is lying at the Credit Lyonnais. The other half has been spent explicitly on Haidee. You have seen the bills."
His face darkened.
"How dared you treat me so?--my own son!"
"If you had come to see him it would have been different, but to stay away year after year, and expect money to fill the gap that a father's influence and love and tenderness should have filled ... that seemed to me too mercenary, too unworthy treatment of my son."
"No matter ... no matter ... it is an infamous thing you have done--a crowning act of cruelty. I should have believed you incapable of it. By God! how dared you let any one else feed and clothe my child?"
She looked at his furious face in genuine amazement.
"Had I no right to work for him?"