Mr. Dalken excused himself after concluding his explanation, and went to his daughters room to escort her to the hotel.
The interested colored man who had given Mr. Dalken the valuable information regarding the men who had taken possession of the White Crest without the owners consent or knowledge, now watched curiously as Mr. Dalken and his daughter left the craft and walked in the direction of the hotel.
The crowds were already thinning out on the ball-room floor, but enough representatives of society still remained to dance to the last note of the orchestra. As fortune had it, one of Mr. Dalkens well-known friends and his family was present and saw the financier as soon as he stepped upon the floor to dance with Elizabeth.
Theres Dalken and his daughter remember we had him to dinner in Washington when I first took my Seat? whispered the gentleman to his wife.
A reporter for a New York paper stood near and overheard the remark. Instantly he made a note of it and drew nearer to his source of information. He heard the Representative speak of the White Crest and the cruise, and he decided to look up the yacht and its owner in the morning.
Not a word was spoken between Mr. Dalken and his daughter after they left the hotel and boarded the yacht. No one was in sight on deck and the owner accompanied Elizabeth to her room and went in behind her. Then he closed the door and turned to have a word with her.
He spoke tenderly at first, but she ignored him completely and refused to answer his questions. Finally he said sternly: Elizabeth, I wish you to answer my questions in regard to this escapade.
Well, I dont care if you do! I do not have to speak to you unless I wish to! snapped she.
I am your father, and I represent your guardian in the law. I am responsible, to a certain extent, for all your wrong-doings, hence I demand that you tell me how you came to go to that vile den where I found you with those despicable men.
Elizabeth stared defiantly at her father, then she remarked: You may demand, but I do not need to reply.
Mr. Dalken then tried to show her what a risk she had taken in going to a place where a murder or other crime was apt to happen at any moment if one of the habitues became too drunk to control himself.
Elizabeth narrowed her eyelids and looked at her father in a manner that reminded him unpleasantly of her mother whenever she had been cornered in a scandalous situation. Then the girl spoke drawlingly.
You are such a fossil when it comes to social matters! Why, there isnt a girl I know who would not give her head to have been in my shoes to-night. But how can you know that two of those men are the finest catches of the season. Henri Aspinwall is a multi-millionaire from South America, and James Stickney is one from New York. I had both of them at my feet this evening, and then you came to ruin my prospects of a proposal! Elizabeth actually wept tears of mortification at her fathers untimely appearance in Satans Kitchen.
Mr. Dalken gasped in sheer unbelief. Do you mean to say you knew those two men? Did you know they were divorced by their wives for their disreputable living?
How silly you are! Reputations are nothing in these liberal times, because divorce is so convenient. Those two men have money and the most charming personalities. That is why their wives cant live with them they are generally so shabby looking and are fiercely jealous of the attentions paid their husbands by appreciative women. Naturally, men like Henri or James are too popular for their fogy wives, hence the divorces, you know!
Why, Elizabeth, you are
positively shocking! I cannot believe you are not yet twenty and my own child! Where have you acquired all this nightmare of experience in such things? Mr. Dalkens voice trembled with emotion over the girls short-comings.
Really, father, one might think you were a saint, from the way you are trying to preach to me! sneered Elizabeth.
Far be it from me to pose as a saint, but at least I know I am a clean-minded man, and I demand that my daughter act as a young lady should, while she is in my charge, was Mr. Dalkens stern reply.
I suppose you would invite me to model my behavior after such country clods as Miss Brewster, or take for my example such flippant nobodies as Eleanor Maynard from Chicago? scorned Elizabeth, tossing her head. Why, I knew them both at school in New York, and I must say that not a girl in society would deign to cast a glance at either of them now. They are absolutely too impossible to stand on any rung of the social ladder, and not even the commonest plane of society in New York would consider them.
I am ashamed to hear you say so. It goes to prove how low the social standard has fallen. In fact, I may add, that the standard of a once decent period must have been dragged through the mire, of late times, to present such views as you entertain as its highest aspirations. Mr. Dalkens words were cutting and Elizabeth resented them.
Well, I am sorry to remind you, sir, that men who can shamelessly turn their backs upon the obligations of a wife and daughter and go after such women as you prefer to call your friends, are the very ones who smirch societys fair standard and then stand up and denounce it as having fallen.