ust what _he's_ said."

"And what has he said? Has he talked about her to _you_?"

"He hasn't talked about her. He's just--just let things out."

"What sort of things?"

"Only that sort." She added, as if to herself: "I don't believe he
thinks much of her."

Barbara's self-control was miraculous. "I've understood that he was
very much in love with her."

"Well, perhaps he is." Letty's little movement of the shoulders hinted
that an expert wouldn't be of this opinion. "He may think he is,
anyhow."

"But if he thinks he is----"

Letty's eyes rested on her visitor with their compelling candor. "I
don't believe men know much about love, do you, Miss Walbrook?"

"It depends. All men haven't had as much experience of it as I suppose
you've had----"

"Oh, I haven't had any." The candor of the eyes was now in the whole
of the truthful face. "Nobody was ever in love with me--never. I never
had a fella--nor nothing."

In spite of herself Barbara believed this. She couldn't help herself.
She could hear Rash saying that whatever else was wrong in the
ridiculous business the girl herself was straight. All the same the
discussion was beneath her. It was beneath her to listen to opinions
of herself coming from such a source. If Rash didn't "think much of
her" there was something to "have out" with him, not with this little
street-waif dressed up with this ludicrous mummery. The sooner she
ended the business on which she had come the sooner she would get a
legitimate outlet for the passion of jealousy and rage consuming her.

"But we're wandering away from my errand. I won't pretend that I've
come of my own accord. I'm a very old friend of Mr. Allerton's, and
he's asked me--or practically asked me--to come and find out----"

For what she was to come and find out she lacked for a minute the
right word, and so held up the sentence.

"What I'd take to let him off?"

The form of expression was so crude that once more Barbara was
startled. "Well, that's what it would come to."

"But I've told him already that--that I want to let him off anyhow."

"Yes? And on what terms?"

"I don't want any terms."

"Oh, but there must be _terms_. He couldn't let you do it----"

"He could let me do it for _him_, couldn't he? I'd go through fire, if
it'd make him a bit more comfortable than he is."

Barbara could not believe her ears. "Do you want me to understand
that----?"

"That I'll do whatever will make him happy just to _ma