He was frightened, and yet incredulous. He had heard and read and believed that there was no limit to the love and forgiveness of a mother's and sister's heart.
But he had gone too far in his insolent assurance, and, to his terror and amazement, his hour of reckoning had come at last.
He did not take into account the fact that he did not have a good woman for a mother. His excesses had turned her heart against him, and to his horror she sided with Alpine, angrily discarding him.
"I wash my hands of you," she said, bitterly. "Kathleen may send you to prison if she will. Alpine and I can go abroad. The affair will soon blow over, and people will forget it by the time we come home from Europe."
He dropped his insouciance, and descended to pleading, but it was of no avail. He saw a black fate lowering over him from which there seemed no escape.
In the darkest moment a clever idea came to him.
"If I could only escape to Europe, the whole affair would be over, for I would never come back; but, alas! I have not the means to pay my passage across the ocean," he said, despondently.
Mrs. Carew caught eagerly at the offered bait.
"If you will go and never return, I will furnish you the means," she said.
"I swear it," he replied, and left the house presently, the money in his pocket, an evil, sneering smile on his thin lips.