“That’s a lie!” cried Clearwater. “It’s as honest a business as there is!”
“Yes,” said Helm, “it’s as honest a _big_ business as there is--and as dishonest.”
“You can’t disgrace _my_ father, George,” said Eleanor. “You can’t send my cousins to the penitentiary. Why, they’re like my brothers.”
Helm looked gravely at her. He said slowly:
“You are their cousin. You are Senator Clearwater’s daughter. But you are my wife--you are our son’s mother.”
She was deathly pale, and her eyes looked her terror, as she said breathlessly:
“Yes,” said Helm gently. “I can--and I must--and, Ellen, I will.”
“_You_ asking me to choose between you and my father!” exclaimed she.
“No, Ellen,” replied he. “I am your husband. There can’t be any choice between me and any one else on earth.”
They gazed at each other, he as white as she. But she was trembling, while he stood like a strong tree. She said:
“Yes--I am yours, George. But--you will give me a wound I’ll never recover from.”
He said: “It will give _us_ a wound that’ll never heal. But--we’ll suffer together, my love, as we have been happy together.”
Clearwater watched them with awe. It was the first time in all his life that he had ever seen love--the reality of love. And the sight was so overpowering that it overwhelmed his emotions of terror and rage and hate. When he finally spoke it was with a kind of hysteria:
“My God, Eleanor! If your dead mother could have known that her daughter----”
Helm put his arm round his wife and interrupted sternly:
“If her dead mother could have seen you at your deviltry through that corporation--could have seen the starving wretches in your lumber camps--the blighted children toiling in your mines, the blood and filth on your dividend dollars, every one of them!”
“He lies, Eleanor!” cried her father. “He is a half-crazed crank----”
“He is my husband, father,” interrupted Eleanor. And very proud she looked as she said it.
“You will do nothing to help me!” cried her father, in a sudden agony of fear.
Eleanor was about to reply. Helm shook his head, led her gently toward the door. He said:
“Eleanor,” shrieked her father, “if you yield to this man, if you give up your father to be destroyed by him, I shall disinherit you, I shall curse you. I shall curse you. I shall curse you!”
