"It was good of her to think of that!"
Mr. Spragg's only comment was a sigh.
"Does she imagine I won't fight it?" Ralph broke out with sudden passion.
His father-in-law looked at him thoughtfully. "I presume you realize it ain't easy to change Undine, once she's set on a thing."
"Perhaps not. But if she really means to apply for a divorce I can make it a little less easy for her to get."
"That's so," Mr. Spragg conceded. He turned back to his revolving chair, and seating himself in it began to drum on the desk with cigar-stained fingers.
"And by God, I will!" Ralph thundered. Anger was the only emotion in him now. He had been fooled, cheated, made a mock of; but the score was not settled yet. He turned back and stood before Mr. Spragg.
"I suppose she's gone with Van Degen?"
"My daughter's gone alone, sir. I saw her off at the station. I understood she was to join a lady friend."
At every point Ralph felt his hold slip off the surface of his father-in-law's impervious fatalism.