They glared at him aghast. The two women loved money passionately. It made them almost frantic the way that Ivan squandered it.
"You two are rolling in wealth," he continued, "and yet you begrudge a poor devil of a son and brother a few thousand to get him out of a penitentiary scrape."
The listeners shuddered. Next to money, they loved good repute, and it was the dread of their lives that the dissolute Ivan would bring disgrace upon them. And here it was staring them in the face. The penitentiary, ugh!
"We have spent at least fifteen thousand dollars on you since we came into this fortune!" groaned Alpine.
"And what you ever did with so much money, in so short a time, I can not imagine," added Mrs. Carew.
"Fast living and cards," laconically replied the villain.
They looked at each other, the two badgered women, and one thought was in the mind of each. Ivan was shameless, defiant. He would never alter his evil courses and if he went on like this, and they had to supply him with money, he would bankrupt them in the end. Disgrace would come to them sooner or later through this black sheep.
Alpine turned to him and asked curiously:
"How did you find out that Kathleen had left her diamonds at the jewelers?"
He started and whitened at the suddenness of the question, but answered, doggedly: