“Don’t! don’t!” she gasped. Captain Elisha spoke up sharp and stern.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” he said, “but I’ll be obliged if you’ll wait a minute. Caroline, don’t you say a word. You say—you—” addressing Malcolm, “that you can’t support a wife on your wages. You surprise me some, considerin’ the swath you’ve been cuttin’ on ’em—but never mind that. Maybe they won’t keep automobiles and—er—other things I’ve heard you was interested in, but if you cut them out and economize a little, same as young married folks I’ve known have been glad to do, you could scrape along, couldn’t you? Hey? Couldn’t you?”
Malcolm’s answer was another scornful shrug. “You belong on Cape Cod,” he sneered. “Mater, let’s get out of this.”
“Wait! Put it plain now. Do I understand that you cal’late to break the engagement because my niece has lost her money? Is that it?”
Mrs. Dunn realized that the inevitable was upon them. After all, it might as well be faced now as later.
“This is ridiculous,” she proclaimed. “Every sane person knows—though barbarians may not—” with a venomous glare at the captain—“that, in engagements of the kind in which my son shared, a certain amount of—er—financial—er—that is, the bride is supposed to have some money. It is expected. Of course it is! Love in a cottage is—well—a bit passé. My son and I pity your niece from the bottom of our hearts, but—there! under the circumstances the whole affair becomes impossible. Caroline, my dear, I’m dreadfully sorry, dreadfully! I love you like my own child. And poor Malcolm will be heartbroken—but—you see.”
She extended her hand in a gesture of utter helplessness. Stephen, who had been fuming and repressing his rage with difficulty during the scene, leaped forward with brandished fist.
“By gad!” he shouted. “Mal Dunn, you cad—”
His uncle pushed him back with a sweep of his arm.
“Steve,” he ordered, “I’m runnin’ this ship.” He gave a quick glance at his niece, and then added, speaking rapidly and addressing the head of the Dunn family, “I see, ma’am. Yes, yes, I see. Well, you’ve forgot one thing, I guess. Caroline’s lived in high society, too. And I’ve been in it a spell, myself. And Steve’s a boy, but he’s got a business head. If there’s nothin’ in marriage but business, then an engagement is what I just called it, a business contract, and it can’t be broke without the consent of both sides. You wanted Caroline’s money; maybe she wants yours now. If she does, and there’s such a thing as law, why, perhaps she can get it.”