That was all. But the simple sincerity of the saying griped the father's mood, as no argument could have done. There was a little silence. After all, what could meet such loving loyalty?
When at last he spoke, Gilder's voice was subdued, a little husky.
“Now, that you know?” he questioned.
There was no faltering in the answer.
“Now, that I know,” Dick said distinctly. Then abruptly, the young man spoke with the energy of perfect faith in the woman. “Don't you see, father? Why, she is justified in a way, in her own mind anyhow, I mean. She was innocent when she was sent to prison. She feels that the world owes her——”
But the older man would not permit the assertion to go uncontradicted. That reference to the woman's innocence was an arraignment of himself, for it had been he who sent her to the term of imprisonment.
“Don't talk to me about her innocence!” he said, and his voice was ominous. “I suppose next you will argue that, because she's been clever enough to keep within the law, since she's got out of State Prison, she's not a criminal. But let me tell you—crime is crime, whether the law touches it in the particular case, or whether it doesn't.”
Gilder faced his son sternly for a moment, and then presently spoke again with deeper earnestness.
“There's only one course open to you, my boy. You must give this girl up.”
The son met his father's gaze with a level look in which there was no weakness.