"You must have made some progress since then."
Kimberly’s head began to move slowly from side to side. "I am told," added MacBirney, in a thin, hard voice, "you are getting ready to marry her."
MacBirney’s rage forced him to his feet. "I am beginning to understand now, Kimberly," he framed the words slowly and carefully, "the way you have plotted against me from the start. I was warned before I ever saw you that you had no respect for the law of God or man where a woman was concerned. I was warned that no woman was safe near you."
Kimberly eyed his enraged associate calmly. "You are travelling far in a few words, MacBirney. I hope you understand, once for all, that certain limits cover a situation even such as this. I don’t like your last phrase. It might be made to apply unpleasantly to a woman now very dear to me. I am used to angry men, and what you say about me----"
"What you say about me is allowable, no matter what I think of it. But understand this, if you say one word about her--here or elsewhere, now or hereafter--I will stop you, if I have to choke you with my own hands."
"I don’t want to; I don’t want to choke you; but if you wish to see me try it, pass that limit just once. Now go on, MacBirney."
"I could have nothing to say against Alice."
"But I have something to say about a man who pretended to be my friend----"
"--And played traitor to me as you have done. But it’s of a piece with your whole record. First you got me down here----"
"--Then you began to lay your plans to ruin my home."
"What were you doing all this time? Trying to circumvent me by making your home happy or trying to help me by neglecting it?"
MacBirney shook his finger at Kimberly in rage. "You can’t escape with smooth phrases. You broke up my home!"
Kimberly had regained his coolness. "No, you broke it up. Long before I ever saw you, you broke up your home. It was broken up and only waiting for some one to save your wife from the wreck. MacBirney, you have made a success of your business; one one-hundredth of the effort you have given to your business would have saved your home. Yet you thought you could treat your wife like a servant, humiliate and abuse her and still hold her forth a figurehead for your ’home’!" muttered Kimberly with scorn.