retorted savagely. "He can't welch
because there's little to climb for beyond us; and even if he climbs, he
can't ignore us. I can do as many things for him in my way as you can
in yours. What is the use of being a pig, Leila? Anything he does for me
isn't going to cancel his obligations to you."

"I know him better than you do," she observed, bending her head and
pleating the lace on her knee. "There is Dutch blood in him."

"Not good Hollander, but common Dutch," sneered Mortimer. "And you mean
he'll squeeze a dollar till the eagle screams-don't you?"

She sat silent, pleating her lace with steady fingers.

"Well, that's all right, too," laughed Mortimer easily; "let the
Audubon Society worry over the eagle. It's a perfectly plain business
proposition; we can do for him in a couple of winters what he can't do
for himself in ten. Figure it out for yourself, Leila," he said, waving
a mottled fat hand at her.

"I--have," she said under her breath.

"Then, is it settled?

"Settled--how?"

"That we form ourselves into a benevolent society of two in behalf of
Plank?"

"I--I don't want to, Roy," she said slowly.

"Why not?"

She did not say why not, seated there nervously pleating the fragile
stuff clinging to her knee.

"Why not?" he repeated menacingly. Her unexpectedly quiescent attitude
had emboldened him to a bullying tone--something he had not lately
ventured on.

She raised her eyes to his: "I--rather like him," she said quietly.

"Then, by God! he'll pay for that!" he burst out, mask off, every
inflamed feature shockingly congested.

"Roy! You dare not--"

"I tell you I--"

"You dare not!"

The palpitating silence lengthened; slowly the blood left the swollen
veins. Heavy pendulous lip hanging, he stared at her from distended
eyes, realising that he had forgotten himself. She was right. He dared
not. And she held the whip-hand as usual.

For every suspicion he could entertain, she had evidence of a certainty
to match it; for every chance that he might have to prove anything, she
had twenty proven facts. And he knew it. Why they had, during all these
years, made any outward pretence of conjugal unity they alone knew. The
modus vivendi suited them better than divorce: that was apparent, or had
been until recently. Recently Leila Mortimer had changed--become subdued
and softened to a degree that had perplexed her husband. Her attitude
toward him lacked a little of the bitterness and contempt sh