He had a terrible thirst for her respect.

Not so much for her love, she divined, but that she would not see how he had fallen! She pitied him with all her heart.

She was all he had, as he was all the world to her.

And so, as she gave ear to his long, illogical rigmarole of argument and defense, she slowly found that her pity and her love were making vital decisions for her.

As of old, in poignant moments, her father lapsed at last into a denunciation of the Isbels and what they had brought him to.