[Illustration: LOLA SHOCKS HER FATHER AND HIS FRIEND BY HER HEARTLESSNESS.]
As she looked up at him shyly, yet confidently, it seemed to him that the last twenty years had been a dream, and that he was sitting beside that other young woman, so like her, and any trace of disappointment he had felt at her attitude fell away, and there was nothing but tenderness in his voice as he replied:
"It was more years ago than I can count that your mother came to me and looked up as you are looking now, and begged me not to side against her. She wanted to marry your father; and all were saying 'no.' I could not refuse her anything any more than I could you, although it hurt me to help bring about that marriage, for I loved her myself. So you see how helpless I am. I must fight your battles. I have no choice."
"You're a dear," laughed Lola happily, "and if I had been mother--but there--I must not make you vain. I was sure that I could depend upon you. Now, let's not talk about serious things any more. Come! Let me show you the view of the river from the windows. Isn't it glorious here! Why, do you know, Doctor dear, that after Eighth Avenue this is like another world? Look!" She had dragged him to the window and with one hand on his shoulder, and her pretty, eager face flushed with an almost passionate enthusiasm, she stood pointing out to where the Drive curved majestically, flanked on one side by its stately buildings, on the other by the always beautiful Hudson and the distant Palisades.
"Look!" she repeated. "I was content once in that shabby, horrid flat. Perfectly content, and patient, and happy. Father said that I was content because I was good, but I know better; it was because I was ignorant; because the thing that was mine was the only thing I knew. He talks of going back! Threatens, because he is afraid, because he never spent money in his life, and is too old to learn now, to return to that squalid, shabby, dirty hole. I want you to talk to him," and she turned him so that he faced her, and as he felt the nervous grasp on his arm he marvelled at her strength. "I want you to tell him what I have already told him, that, if he goes back there, he will go alone. I am out of it now, and there isn't power enough in the world to drag me back."