And, to his own astonishment, he found himself saying, "I'm afraid that's where I come in!" As he spoke, he remembered that night of the eclipse--oh, those moon-washed depths, those stupendous serenities of Law and Beauty which, together, are Truth! How passionately he had desired Truth. And now Mrs. Houghton was saying "Consider the stars." "If I could only tell her!" he thought.
"If the wrongdoing is behind you," said Mary Houghton, "let it go."
"It won't let me go," he said, with nervous lightness. "Though it's behind me, all right!"
Which made her say, gently, "Maurice, perhaps I know what troubles you?" His start made her add, quickly: "Your uncle Henry has never betrayed your confidence; but ... I guessed, long ago, that something had gone wrong. I don't know how wrong--"
"Oh, Mrs. Houghton," he said, despairingly, "awfully wrong! Awfully--awfully wrong!" He put his elbow on his knee, and rested his chin on his clenched fist; she was silent. Then he said: "You've always been an angel to me. I am glad you guessed. Because--I don't know what to do."
Her dismay was like a blow. "But you said you had 'guessed'?"
"I guessed that there was a woman; but I didn't know--" She put her arm over his shoulders and kissed him. "My poor Maurice!" The tears stood in her eyes.
"I told you it was 'awful,'" he said, simply; "yes, it is my little boy; I'm worried to death about him. Lily--that's her name--is perfectly all right; she means well, and adores him, and all that; but--" Then he told her what Jacky's mother had been and what she was now; and the illustrations he gave of Lily's ignorance of ethical standards made Mary Houghton cringe. "She's ruining the little fellow," he said; "he's not mean nor a coward--I'll say that for him! But he lies whenever he feels like it, and honesty only means not getting 'pinched.' She's awfully ambitious for him; but her idea of success is what she calls 'Society,' Oh, it's such a relief to speak to you, Mrs. Houghton! I haven't a soul I can talk to."
"Maurice, can't you get him?" Her voice was shocked.
He almost laughed. "Wild horses wouldn't drag him from Lily!"
She was silent before the complexity of the situation--the furtive paternity, with its bewildered sense of responsibility, in conflict with the passion of the dam!