"What are you going to do about it?" he asked, insolently.
"You must return them. There will be a terrible scandal if you do not," replied his mother.
"I have sold them and spent the money," he returned with inimitable coolness.
"Good heavens! what will you do?" she cried; and to her indignation he laughed out aloud as he said:
"You and Alpine will have to make up the four thousand between you, and pay Kathleen!"
"I will not!" came in a burst of rage from Alpine's lips, and her mother echoed it.
"I will not!"
The son leaned back indolently in his chair, not a whit moved by their anger. They always had come round to his demands. They would have to do it now.
"Would you bring disgrace on yourselves by having me sent to prison to save a paltry four thousand dollars?" he demanded, with the air of one who is master of the situation.