"I can't have you talking like that, Una," he said in a suppressed tone. "It's very painful to me. I can't imagine why anyone should try to injure you. They couldn't, you know. You're above all that sort of thing. It's too trivial—"
"Oh, is it? You'll see. All New York will have the story in twenty-four hours. Pretty sort of a tale to get to the Mission! The Mission! If those people heard! Imagine the embroideries! I could never lift my head down there again."
"Let the world go hang. Have you anything to be ashamed of, Una?"
"No."
"Nor I. Very well."
The seriousness that Una attached to the affair, while it bewildered, also inflamed him. "I wish it had been a man who had talked to you the way Marcia did."
Una turned toward him soberly.
"What would you do to him, Jerry?"
He smiled grimly. "I think I'd kill him," he said softly.
I think Jerry's tone must have comforted her, for he said that after that Una grew quieter.