She spoke serenely, even cheerfully, but there was a decisive sound in her voice, and the eyes fixed upon him were full of determination.

“I can’t understand how you can be willing to act a lie to your own boy, especially when you care for him so much,” said Dion, almost violently.

“I shall not act a lie.”

“But you will.”

“Sometimes you are horribly morbid,” she said coldly.

“Morbid! Because I want to keep a young schoolboy out of—”

“Take care, Dion!” she interrupted hastily.

“If you—you don’t really love Jimmy,” he said.

“I forbid you to say that.”

“I will say it. It’s true.”