Virginia was all interest.

"He's as pleased with her as a snow bird at a blizzard. Every time it was Miss Knight's evening off, he would make an early call upon me dressed in his best clothes."

There came a knock at the front door.

Hastening to it at a nod from Mrs. Curtis, Helen threw it wide open. Aunt Kate and Obadiah waited without.

"Daddy," cried Virginia, for the moment blissfully forgetful as she tried to get around Joe without hurting his outstretched leg.

"Obadiah Dale!" It was Mrs. Curtis who spoke from the doorway into the dining room and there was something in her voice which held them all.

The happiness had gone from her face, leaving it cold and distorted with pa.s.sion as Virginia had seen it.

"Obadiah Dale!"--she fairly hissed the words--"What do you want in my house? Would you like to do me greater harm--you robber?" She gave a shrill mirthless laugh and flung her hands towards the sides of the poorly furnished room. "Look about you. There isn't much left since you got in your devil's work."

Mrs. Curtis's eyes shifted to Virginia as, startled by this strange attack upon her father, she waited at Joe's side. It was as if the woman struggled between aversion and regard. "I never thought you were his daughter," she snarled.

White, tense and sickened to the depths of her being by the fear of shameful disclosures, the girl could make no reply.

Joe Curtis was watching his mother with worried eyes. The frightened faces of Helen and Charles Augustus peeped from behind Aunt Kate who, from the subdued exclamations and the indignant glances she gave her brother, was expecting to hear the worst of him.

Clearly, Obadiah was amazed at the woman's words. He stood irresolute, his throat working as if he were trying to swallow something. At last he regained the power of speech. "Madam," he began.

"Madam," sneered the woman, "Octavia Curtis, the widow of Augustus Curtis, the man whose business you ruined by your infernal scheming, whose wife and two children were dragged by your greed and selfishness from a life of comfort--to this. What business have you in my house, you thief?"

Obadiah flushed and quailed under her words. Bewildered and puzzled, a guilty conscience in business catastrophes made him feel it advisable to allow his opponent to develop her case.

Mrs. Curtis's words affected Virginia differently. Her face flushed and her fears pa.s.sed. "Stop," she interrupted, her eyes flashing angrily.

"What right have you to speak so to my father?"

"Right?" Again that ugly laugh came from Mrs. Curtis as she urged, "Ask him how he ruined the Curtis mill at Brenton."

Obadiah gave a start.

Aunt Kate, observing her brother through suspicious eyes, noted this.

"As ye sow, so shall ye reap," she quoted, for his greater comfort.

The mill owner glanced hastily towards the door as if seeking a line of retreat from this a.s.semblage of women and lame men. But Aunt Kate, the inner keeper of the outer gate, barred his way.

Pale of face but with a determined set to her mouth, Virginia said softly, "Daddy, explain please. You must Daddy."

"It was a perfectly legitimate business deal. The Curtis mill had notes upon the market, protected by a mortgage on the plant. I purchased them.

When they became due and were not paid, to protect myself--and you--I foreclosed and took the mill. I suppose this woman was caught in the deal," Obadiah answered and moved as if to leave the room.

"Stop, Daddy," the girl commanded. "We must settle this matter now.

Either too much or too little has been said."

"Settle?" Once more that acrimonious laugh came from Mrs. Curtis's lips. "How are you going to settle for sleepless nights, for worry and for tears? What can pay for those dreary days which grew into weeks and months since hope for my children was torn from my life?" She flung her arms wide in the anguish which tortured her. "How are you going to wipe out the fact that my poor lame baby"--she pointed at Charles Augustus--"had to depend upon charity to be able to play as other boys--plain charity," she almost screamed. "Or that he"--she indicated Joe--"has been forced into the world to struggle for an education he might have had in comfort."

"Oh," moaned Virginia. The misery of the story clouded her eyes as they turned from the pa.s.sion-torn woman to her father.

The flood of the emotion-driven woman's words seemed to have made Obadiah helpless. He stood as if awaiting sentence for his evil doing, an old man abject and forlorn.

As she looked at him, a wave of pity swept over Virginia and her love for him struggled in her heart, regardless of all that had been said against him. "My father can't be to blame for all of this. I couldn't believe it of him," she cried.

It was as if the note of grief and entreaty in the girl's voice tempered the anger of Mrs. Curtis. She dropped into a chair and began to sob. Joe Curtis arose hastily, limped over to her side, and tried to sooth her. At the sound of his mother's grief, Charles Augustus put his head upon Helen's shoulder and wept also.

Virginia moved over and gently touched the shoulder of the sobbing woman, who, flinching from contact with the girl's hand, drew herself sharply away.

"Don't, mother," pleaded Joe.

Virginia withdrew her hand, yet she remained by Mrs. Curtis's chair.

"Tell me the whole story," she begged. "I must know. I have the right to know."

Even through her own grief, the anxiety and unhappiness of the girl touched the older woman. She raised her br.i.m.m.i.n.g eyes. Her temper had died away and she spoke rapidly, almost in a monotone, broken by sob hiccoughs. "At my husband's death every thing that he left me was invested in our mill. It was a good business and should have given me and my boys the comforts and even the luxuries of life. Before his death, he had borrowed money to make improvements, giving notes secured by a mortgage upon the plant.

"After he had gone, I took charge of the mill and tried to run it myself. I was not a very good business woman. I had a hard time to pay the interest on our indebtedness. When the notes came due, I asked for a renewal but my request was refused. I was thunderstruck. I learned that your father had bought the notes, and wherever I tried to raise money I was refused because of his influence as a rival manufacturer.

So I lost my mill and had to meet life, a widow with a baby and a young boy, a little money, and this old farm."

A flash of her anger returned and she pointed at Obadiah. "My boys are raised in poverty while _he_ stands there in the pride of his wealth.

When he got the mill he never used it. He closed it, throwing good people who had worked for us for years out of employment. They had to move away and sacrifice their little homes. It brought sorrow to them as well as to me. He, Obadiah Dale, is to blame for all of this."

Aunt Kate wiped a tear from her eye.

"Daddy," Virginia said softly, "did you know the harm that you were doing to all of these people?" Her eyes searched his, as if to discover his answer before he could utter it, and her tones beseeched him to justify her love at the altar of her heart.

Obadiah stiffened. He held up his head and returned the look of his daughter squarely. He knew that he was giving battle for her love, aye, even for her respect. The old man was a fighter. "No!" he cried.

"It is unjust to charge me with all of the sorrows and tribulations of this family. I built the first mill in this country--took the chances of opening the industry. The Brenton mill was established to compete with me. There was room for one big plant here and only one.

Augustus Curtis knew it and expected to put me out of business. Mrs.

Curtis"--Obadiah's voice was firm now--"you have said some hard things about me today in the presence of my daughter and sister. I am ent.i.tled in common justice to my defence. I started in business without a dollar. Much worse off, I think, than your husband. Business has been a battle of supremacy with me. I have taken hard licks and I have given them. I have fought my way. Remember, I had to. A man must win or lose in business and many are the weapons used. I struck with the first one at hand and hit the man in front of me. Do you blame a soldier for the suffering of the dependents of those he kills in battle? I think not. Mrs. Curtis," he continued, "you never met me before."

"No," she admitted.

"How did you recognize me?"

"My husband pointed you out to me in South Ridgefield," she sobbed.

"Did you ever advertise the fact that you were running that mill?"

"I was afraid to," she moaned. "I used my husband's name."

"You see," said Obadiah to Virginia. "I had no way of knowing that a woman was running the Brenton mill. I plead guilty to fighting _men_.

When I get whipped I smile. When I put a man out of business he starts another. He doesn't sit down and cry and blame me for what happens to his family ever afterwards. I never fought a woman in all of my life."

"It's true, Obadiah. You used to talk back but you never fought with me. I am afraid that you are going to have to get a camel through a needle's eye; but you wouldn't fight a woman," interjected Aunt Kate.

Obadiah disregarded his sister's fears and went on, "Did you ever hear of Dalton, the New York manufacturer?"

Mrs. Curtis nodded.