"I did only my duty, my child," he responded, as he held out his hand.
The one good result of the anxiety of the last twenty-four hours—the fact that it had brought Lydia and himself into a kind of human connection—had departed, Daniel observed, when he sat down to dinner, separated from her by six yellow candle shades and a bowl of gorgeous chrysanthemums. After a casual comment upon the soup, and the pleasant reminder that Dick would be home for Thanksgiving, the old uncomfortable silence fell between them. She had just remarked that the roast was a little overdone, and he had agreed with her from sheer politeness, when a sharp ring at the bell sent the old Negro butler hurrying out into the hall. An instant later there was a sound of rapid footsteps, and Alice, wearing a long coat, which slipped from her bare shoulders as she entered, came rapidly forward and threw herself into Ordway's arms, with an uncontrollable burst of tears.
"My child, my child, what is it?" he questioned, while Lydia, rising from the table with a disturbed face, but an unruffled manner, remarked to the butler that he need not serve the dessert.
"Come into the library, Alice, it is quieter there," she said, putting her arm about her daughter, with an authoritative pressure.
"O, papa, I will never see him again! You must tell him that. I shall never see him again," she cried, regardless alike of Lydia's entreaties and the restraining presence of the butler. "Go to him to-night and tell him that I will never—never go back."
"I'll tell him, Alice, and I'll do it with a great deal of pleasure," he answered soothingly, as he led her into the library and closed the door.
"But you must go at once. I want him to know it at once."
"I'll go this very hour—I'll go this very minute, if you honestly mean it."
"Would it not be better to wait until to-morrow, Alice?" suggested Lydia. "Then you will have time to quiet down and to see things rationally."
"I don't want to quiet down," sobbed Alice, angrily, "I want him to know now—this very instant—that he has gone too far—that I will not stand it. He told me a minute ago—the beast!—that he'd like to see the man who would be fool enough to keep me—that if I went he'd find a handsomer woman within a week!"