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 you of your responsibility. But there was something noble about John. There is nothing noble about me."

"Right you are!" put in James smartly.

But Edward went right on. "It's your child and it's your affair. Father will tell you so when he hears about it, and so will mother, and so will Ellen."

"If you say anything to hurt Ellen!" exclaimed James, "I'll wring your young neck."

"To blazes with my young neck!" said Edward, his rage rising again. "And, anyway, you've led such a soft life that if you so much as touched me I'd knock the daylights out of you. But do right—and I won't tell."

"Flow do you mean—do right?"

"The child has to live."

"I don't want to hear anything about that particular child or any other."

"The child has to live," continued Edward steadily. "I will look after the details and Ellen need never know, but you'll have to put up two hundred dollars a month."

"The devil I will! And how do I know the brat's mine? That girl was"

"Oh, shut up!" exclaimed Edward. "Will you find that money or shall I ask Ellen for it?"

James could never be made to acknowledge that