“I shan’t tell you. You’ve no right to ask.” “No, I know I have no right over you. But I have the right to say I won’t eat a dinner without knowing who is paying for it.” “I shall pay for it; isn’t that enough?” “With whose money? You have just admitted that you had been borrowing.” “I borrowed it from Carter’s--there!” Stuart shrugged his shoulders disdainfully. “Where did you think I got it from, then?” “From Mendes. I don’t know anyone else who would be likely to lend you money.” For a moment Molly wavered between wrath and fear. Then something in Alistair’s face overcame her, and she broke down in a whimper. “Don’t be angry with me, Alistair! Don’t look like that. I didn’t know what to do. The servants all left me, I had nowhere to go, and we’ve been so hard up lately. I thought you wanted money badly. It was for you more than for myself, really. I was afraid you would get tired of living with me if we were poor. You threatened to give up the house and everything only the other day; you know you did. I didn’t think you would mind my borrowing a little from him--he’s your friend as well as mine. I didn’t go to his house, only to his office in the City; and he was awfully good, and gave me a hundred pounds at once, and told me to come again when I wanted more.” Alistair remembered his own reception in Mendes’ office. “He wouldn’t have given the hundred pounds to me,” was all he said. “No!--you’re not going!” Molly screamed, as she saw him turning from her. “Alistair! Alistair!” She cast herself on the ground before him and caught him by the foot, in a paroxysm of sobs and wails. “I’m very sorry for you, Molly. I’m not angry with you at all; I’ve no right to be; but I can’t live with you any longer; you must see that. I fancied it would come to this sooner or later. I don’t blame you; I dare say I ought to blame myself. But I can’t live on money that another man gives you; you must know that well enough.” “I’ll give it back to him. I haven’t spent half of it. I’ll take it all back to him to-morrow. I’ll sell something to make it up.” She began desperately tearing off bracelets and rings and dropping them on the floor. But Alistair’s mind was made up. He was surprised to find how perfectly easy it was for him to act now that the moment had come. He had not known that he should be so glad to be free. “Nothing that you could do now would alter the fact that you have taken money from Mendes,” he said. “We may as well make up our minds to what has happened. It was bound to come sooner or later. It is better to part like this than to drag on till we should be both sick of each other. It’s good-bye.” “I will never speak to Mendes again. I will never see him,” sobbed Molly.