"God help your wife and children then," she said. "If I had known you hid such poison as this in you, I'd sooner have seen Margery in her coffin than——"
Barlow Huxam came in and his wife left her sentence unfinished.
"We've all got a right to our opinions. Our conduct, not our words, will judge us, mother."
"Another lie," she answered, and rose and left them.
Jacob expressed regrets and hoped that Barlow would make his peace.
"I let my tongue run," he confessed, "but I didn't mean to vex her."
Mr. Huxam, however, when he heard particulars, took rather a serious view of the controversy.
"I'm sorry you touched religion," he declared, "because on that subject Judy's—however, I'll explain you were not in earnest and are properly contrite. But don't you put loose opinions into your children, because, if she caught a doubtful word in their mouths, there'd be a flare-up and harm done beyond mending."
"Their mother teaches them, not me. Auna's the only one who sets any value on me," answered Jacob.
Mr. Huxam brought out the plans of the villa residence.