He had thought, when she began to speak, that she had yielded; her concluding words told him that she was only quibbling.
“Donald, you can’t mean what you say. Think of his future!”
“I don’t want to argue the question,” he exclaimed impatiently. “You know perfectly well I will never consent to what you ask. It’s contemptible.”
Again she began to sob. “How can you be so cruel? How can you?” she moaned.
“Isn’t it true?” he replied indignantly.
“It doesn’t make any difference how you hurt me—I know I deserve it—but you shall not take this chance away from my boy. It isn’t right! it isn’t fair! Hurt me all you want to, revenge yourself upon me to the best of your ability, but don’t take it out on him. I am fighting for his happiness, and I intend to give it to him.”
“Then you are going about it in a very strange way. Let him grow up and go out into the world with clean hands and a clear conscience; let him know that truth, and right, and honor are more important than all the money in the world, and I’ll answer for his happiness.”
“He need never know,” she began.
“You know, and I know. I refuse to degrade myself, even for his sake.”
“There is nothing I would not do for his sake.”