of
gold, the elaborate chasing was picked out with small rubies and a
large brilliant was set in the end of the cap. Mrs. Rushmore could not
help looking at it, and in her prim way she wondered how any man who
was not an adventurer or a sort of glorified commercial traveller could
carry such a thing. There was an unpleasant fascination in the mere
look of it, and she watched it move instead of answering.

'Yes?' said Logotheti, looking up interrogatively. 'What shall we say?'

'I--I honestly don't know what to say,' Mrs. Rushmore answered, really
confused by the suddenness of the man's proposal. I suppose--no--you
must let me consult my lawyer.'

'I am sorry,' said Logotheti, 'but I cannot afford to waste so much
time. Allow me to be your man of business. How much were you suing Mr.
Moon for?'

'Half a million dollars,' answered Mrs. Rushmore.

'Have you been paying your lawyer, or was he to get a percentage on the
sum recovered?'

'I have paid him about seventeen thousand, so far.'

'For doing nothing. I should like to be your lawyer! I suppose three
thousand more will satisfy him? Yes, that will make it a round twenty
thousand. That leaves your claim worth four hundred and eighty thousand
dollars, does it not?'

'Yes, certainly.'

'Which at four-eighty-four is--' he looked at the ceiling for ten
seconds--'ninety-nine thousand one hundred and eleven pounds, two
shillings and twopence halfpenny--within a fraction. Is that it? My
mental arithmetic is generally pretty fair.'

'I've no doubt that the calculation is correct,' said Mrs. Rushmore,
'only it seems to me--let me see--I'm a little confused--but it seems
to me that if I had won the suit for half a million, the lawyer's
expenses would have come out of that.'

'They do come out of it,' answered Logotheti blandly. 'That is why you
don't get half a million.'

'Yes,' insisted Mrs. Rushmore, who was not easily misled about money,
'certainly. But as it is, after I have received the four hundred and
eighty thousand, I shall still have to deduct the twenty thousand for
the lawyers before handing it over to Margaret, who would only get four
hundred and sixty. Excuse me, perhaps you don't understand.'

'Yes, yes! I do.' Logotheti smiled pleasantly. 'It was very stupid of
me, wasn't it? I'm always doing things like that!'

As indeed financiers are, for arithmetical obliquity about money is
caused by having too much or too little of it, and the people who lo