"And you know I detest it! And just now, when I beat you in a square game, you so far forgot yourself as to swear.

Now, Waldron--" "Oh, puritanical, eh ?" he sneered, ignoring the danger signals in her eyes.

Even yet there might have been some chance of avoiding shipwreck, had he heeded those twin beacons, humbled himself, made amends by due apology and promised reformation.

For though Catherine never had truly loved this man, some years older than herself and of radically different character, still she liked and respected him, and found him--by his very force and dominance--far more to her taste than the insipid hangers-on, sons of fortune or fortune-hunters, who, like the sap-brained Van Slyke, made up so great a part of her "set." So, all might yet have been amended; but this was not to be.

Never yet had "Tiger" Waldron bowed the neck to living man or woman.