"Bunty's day?" Wrath descended on him like a thunderclap. "How dare you, after this afternoon—how dare you speak to me as if you belonged to that fellow and not to me? Don't you know we're each other's forever, Laura Lou? Say you do—say you've always known it!" he commanded her.

"Well, I was engaged to him," she murmured, with her gentle obstinacy.

"If you were, you're not now. How could your mother ever have let you go with a fellow like that anyhow? She thought poorly enough of him when I was with you."

"Well, she didn't fancy him at first; she thought he was a bad companion for Upton. But you don't know how changed he is, Vance. He helped Mother when she lost her job here; and it's him who's paying for my year at Saint Elfrida's. You see, he's real cultured himself, and he wants I should be cultured too, so that by and by we can take those personally conducted parties to Europe for one of the big travel bureaus, and earn a lot of money. That's what first reconciled Mother to him, I guess, his being so cultured. She's always wanted I should marry somebody in the same class as Father's."

Vance stood listening in a tumult of anger and amazement. He had never heard her say as much at one time, and every word she spoke was pure anguish to him. He had the same sense of the world's essential vileness as had swept over him that day by the Crampton riverside. Life tasted like cinders on his lips. At length his indignation broke out in a burst of scattered ejaculations. "He's been paying for you at school—that lowdown waster? Laura Lou, you don't know what you're saying! Culture—him? In your father's class? Oh, God! You'd make me laugh if it wasn't so sickening… . I'm coming back to see your mother tomorrow whether you want me or not—understand? And if that Hayes fellow wants to come too, let him. I'll be there to talk to him. And I'll work day and night till I pay him back what he's paid your mother for you. And you've got to leave that school tomorrow, Laura Lou … do you hear me?"

"No, no, Vance." Her little pale face had grown curiously resolute, and her voice too. "You mustn't come tomorrow—it would kill me if you did. You must give me time … you must do as I tell you… ."

"What are you telling me? That I'm not to see you till it suits this gentleman's convenience? Is that it?"