"Exactly so," Alan answered, gulping down his discomfort.
The father gazed at him long and steadily.
"Well, I always knew you were a fool," he said at last with
paternal candor; "but I never yet knew you were quite such a fool
as this business shows you. You'll have to marry the girl now in
the end. Why the devil couldn't you marry her outright at first,
instead of seducing her?"
"I did not seduce her," Alan answered stoutly. "No man on earth
could ever succeed in seducing that stainless woman."
Dr. Merrick stared hard at him without changing his attitude on his
old oak chair. Was the boy going mad, or what the dickens did he
mean by it?
"You HAVE seduced her," he said slowly. "And she is NOT stainless
if she has allowed you to do so."
"It is the innocence which survives experience that I value, not
the innocence which dies with it," Alan answered gravely.
"I don't understand these delicate distinctions," Dr. Merrick
interposed with a polite sneer. "I gather from what you said just
now that the lady is shortly expecting her confinement; and as she
isn't married, you tell me, I naturally infer that SOMEBODY must
have seduced her--either you, or some other man."
It was Alan's turn now to draw himself up very stiffly.
"I beg your pardon," he answered; "you have no right to speak in
such a tone about a lady in Miss Barton's position. Miss Barton
has conscientious scruples about the marriage-tie, which in theory
I share with her; she was unwilling to enter into any relations
with me except in terms of perfect freedom."
"I see," the old man went on with provoking calmness. "She
preferred, in fact, to be, not your wife, but your mistress."
Alan rose indignantly. "Father," he said, with just wrath, "if you
insist upon discussing this matter with me in such a spirit, I must
refuse to stay here. I came to tell you the difficulty in which I
find myself, and to explain to you my position. If you won't let
me tell you in my own way, I must leave the house without having
laid the facts before you."
The father spread his two palms in front of him with demonstrative
openness. "As you will," he answered. "my time is much engaged.
I expect a patient at a quarter past ten. You must be brief,
please."