Selwyn's eyes suddenly narrowed: "Did you help him out, this time?"
"I—I—how do you mean, Captain Selwyn?" But the splendid colour in her face confirmed his certainty that she had used her own resources to help her brother pay the gambling debt; and he turned away his eyes, angry and silent.
"Yes," she said under her breath, "I did aid him. What of it? Could I refuse?"
"I know. Don't aid him again—that way."
She stared: "You mean—"
"Send him to me, child. I understand such matters; I—that is—" and in sudden exasperation inexplicable, for the moment, to them both: "Don't touch such matters again! They soil, I tell you. I will not have Gerald go to you about such things!"
"My own brother! What do you mean?"
"I mean that, brother or not, he shall not bring such matters near you!"
"Am I to count for nothing, then, when Gerald is in trouble?" she demanded, flushing up.
"Count! Count!" he repeated impatiently; "of course you count! Good heavens! it's women like you who count—and no others—not one single other sort is of the slightest consequence in the world or to it. Count? Child, you control us all; everything of human goodness, of human hope hinges and hangs on you—is made possible, inevitable, because of you! And you ask me whether you count! You, who control us all, and always will—as long as you are you!"