“What is it?” he asked shortly, closing the door and standing above his visitor, who had seated himself and crossed his knees comfortably. Hollinger’s smile deepened to a grin. “I suppose you have something to say to me,” Brainard added impatiently. “Nothing in particular,” Hollinger replied. “I wanted to _see_ you!” “What for?” “Well, to see how you take it for one thing.” Brainard sat down in his chair more calmly and waited. “Don’t you think you made a mistake?” Hollinger inquired. “No!” “You don’t mind the—er—row?” “Not in the least.” “You don’t want to stop it all before it’s too late?” Brainard shook his head slowly. “Not _your_ way,” he said emphatically. “I didn’t suppose you would,” the old fight-trust magnate sighed. “You knew I wouldn’t!” “Sometimes your kind come to their senses—too late. I just thought I would sound you again before the case came to trial.” “And save your money for counsel fees?” Brainard inquired suavely. “Oh, that doesn’t trouble me,” Hollinger replied lightly. “You guessed that I was putting up the money? How clever of you!” “But I can’t yet bring myself to believe that you mean to share with that woman in the profits of her perjury, if she succeeds.” Hollinger smoked a few moments before replying. “I don’t mind telling you that I have no intention of taking a cent from Miss Walters, or Mrs. Krutzmacht, as I suppose we ought to call the lady.” “Then why do you go to all this trouble?” “For various reasons, my dear young man. For the amusement I find in it for one thing. Can you understand that?” “With some difficulty.” “A sort of sporting interest in seeing whether she can win and carry off the bag, with the mine, from your hands, just as the other time I was immensely interested in seeing you escape from her hands at Jalapa. . . . She has a very pretty case, a very pretty case,” he mused. “The best legal talent have passed on it and found it quite flawless. It ought to go through without a hitch.” “Unless the real heir should turn up meanwhile.” “You still stick to that romantic fiction—that young man’s fancy?” “You said that you had other reasons for helping Miss Walters?” “One other reason: I felt that you had treated her—unsympathetically—oh, quite correctly from your puritan point of view; morally you are always above reproach, my young friend. But you are slightly inhuman. Your attitude that night when we discussed this matter at your house was both narrow and inhuman. It disgusted me, if you care to know frankly what I thought.” “And in order to punish me for not following your advice you are conniving with this woman in the perpetration of fraud,” Brainard sneered. “You use words rather crudely,” Hollinger replied in a mild tone. “I don’t understand ‘punish’ and ‘fraud’ in the way you do. You are determined to complicate a simple enough situation, and I am determined to give your virtue an all-round test. . . . Well, your mind is made up?”