"Why, you always do Jim," she feebly answered.
"I never do. Your example has been contagious. I've had to play out the farce with you. To-day I won't play. I'm too hurt, angry, wounded, sore. You have always been my bitterest foe. You brought Nan to New York to get her away from me."
The mother's eyes blazed with honest wrath.
"Yes, I did—and I'm glad I did it—you ungrateful wretch!"
"And you have always been busy poisoning her mind against me and corrupting her imagination with dreams of a life of luxury."
"And thank God I've succeeded at last in bringing her to her senses in time to save her from throwing herself away on you, Jim Stuart!"
"Thank you, mother dear, we understand each other now——"
"Don't you dare call me mother, sir!"
"Why not? I'm going to win in the end, and you're on my side. You know that I'm worth a dozen such fellows as the little scrap of a man on whom she's about to throw herself away."
"How dare you, sir!"