"An elopement?" cried the lady, with rising indignation; but Geraldine laid a pleading hand upon her arm, crying:
"Mother, dear mother, let us discuss this question later. At present let me present Mr. Standish to you."
The mother bowed with cold courtesy. She evidently did not approve of her daughter's suitor.
Standish read her mind like an open book.
He comprehended that she was proud and rich, and would scout the idea of her daughter's marriage with one beneath her in social position.
Yet he was all the more determined to make her his own.
Bending down to Geraldine, he whispered, hoarsely:
"Let me speak to you alone."
She withdrew with him to a little distance, and he whispered, sternly: