good news.

"She's willing to do anything," he stated at once, making the
announcement with the glee of evident relief. "In fact, it was by pure
main force that I kept her from running away from the house this
morning."

He was dashed that she did not take these tidings with his own
buoyancy. "What made you stop her?" she asked, in some wonder. "Sit
down, Rash. Tell me the whole thing."

Though she took a chair he was unable to do so. His excitement now was
over the ease with which the difficulty was going to be met. He could
only talk about it in a standing position, leaning on the mantelpiece,
or stroking the head of the Manship terra cotta child, while she gazed
up at him, nervously beating her left palm with the black and gold
fringe of her girdle.

"I stopped her because--well, because it wouldn't have done."

"Why wouldn't it have done? I should think that it's just what would
have done."

"Let her slip away penniless, and--and without friends?"

"She'd be no more penniless and without friends than she was
when--when you--" she sought for the right word--"when you picked her
up."

"No, of course not; only now the--the situation is different."

"I don't see that it is--much. Besides, if you were to let her run
away first, so that you get--whatever the law wants you to get, you
could see that she wasn't penniless and without friends afterwards.
Most likely that's what she was expecting."

His countenance fell. "I--I don't think so."

"Oh, you wouldn't think so as long as she could bamboozle you. I was
simply thinking of your getting what she probably wants to give
you--for a price."

"I don't think you do her justice, Barbe. If you'd seen her----"

"Very well; I shall see her. But seeing her won't make any difference
in my opinion."

"She'll not strike you as anything wonderful of course; but I know
she's as straight as they make 'em. And so long as she is----"

"Well, what then?"

"Why, then, it seems to me, we must be straight on our side."

"We'll be straight enough if we pay her her price."

"There's more to it than that."

"Oh, there is? Then how much more?"

"I don't know that I can explain it." He lifted one of the Stiegel
candlesticks and put it back in its place. "I simply feel that we
can't--that we can't let all the magnanimity be on her side. If she
plays high, we've got to play higher."

"I see. So she's got you there, has she?"

"I wish you wouldn't be disagreeable about