And it was Alma who had said at the
Witherspoon dinner, "Everybody will forgive a man with money."
And that was what Ralph had thought of her, that she was like
Alma--that money could buy her--that she would sell the honor of her
country for gold--.
But worse than any hurt of her own was the hurt of the thing for Derry.
Ralph Witherspoon had dared to point a finger of scorn at him--other
people had dared--
She suffered intensely, not as a child, but as a woman.
Alma, out on the floor, was saying to Derry, "I saw you dancing with
Jean McKenzie. She's a quaint little duck."
"Not a duck, Alma," he was smiling, "a white dove--or a silver swan."
The look that he sent across the room to Jean was a revelation.
Like Ralph, she grew hateful. "So that's it? Well, a man with money
can get anything."
He had no anger for her. Jean might blaze in his defense, but his own
fires were not to be fanned by any words of Alma Drew. If he lost his
fortune, Jean would still care for him. It was fore-ordained, as fixed
as the stars.
So he went back to her, and when she saw him coming, the burden of her
distress fell from her.
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