Loveman’s round, keen eyes swiftly took in the situation. To him this coming together of the four of them face to face, of Mr. Morton, Jack, Mary, and the girl Jack had been directed to marry, could have but one meaning, one outcome. His speech followed his conclusion so promptly that there was barely a moment between his entrance and his first word. “Pardon my coming up here, Mr. Morton,” he said rapidly, stepping forward, “but the matter is so immensely important as to abrogate formalities. I have just made a discovery--” “Mr. Morton,” Mary interrupted sharply, pressing between the two men. She knew that yet a new destruction was in Loveman’s next eager words; and her instinct to keep on fighting to the very end instantly controlled her. “Mr. Morton--before you hear him, read my letter!” “Your letter?” queried Mr. Morton, taken aback by the suddenness of all this. “The letter I gave you in the Japanese Room. The letter I told you to hold until I gave you permission to read it. You have it with you?” “Yes, here it is, Mrs. Gardner.” He drew an envelope from an inner coat pocket. “Mr. Morton, I’ve just discovered--” “Read my letter first,” Mary again broke sharply in upon Loveman. “The time has come that I spoke of, Mr. Morton,--the time when you have my permission to read my letter. It tells you all that Mr. Loveman has discovered and more!” “Mr. Morton--” “You wait, Loveman. Mrs. Gardner first.” Mr. Morton ran a forefinger beneath the embossed flap. The little lawyer was yellowish-pale, there was a spasmodic quivering of the soft folds beneath which his Adam’s apple was throbbing. Mary saw Loveman’s condition, and with a seemingly involuntary action, laid a hand upon the finger of Mr. Morton’s that was sheathed in the envelope. “That letter contains everything, Mr. Morton. I wasn’t quite ready for you to know it. I’d rather you did not know it yet--but Mr. Loveman has forced me.” She turned to Loveman, and her next words had in them a hidden meaning for him, and another meaning for Mr. Morton. “Since you are determined, Mr. Loveman, that Mr. Morton must know it, I prefer that he learn it from me--and that he learn everything.” In her steady glance, the sallow little man read reckless defiance--and beneath her words he read the offer of a bargain. And he had a swift sense, vague as yet, that the situation might not be as desperate as he had at first believed. “If Mrs. Gardner really prefers that nothing be said about it just now--” “I do prefer,” she interrupted him. “Why, then, naturally, I’ll not say anything at present--provided Mrs. Gardner agrees to say nothing.” “I agree.” “And the letter?” softly suggested Loveman. “With your permission, Mr. Morton,” and Mary deftly slipped the envelope out of his hands. “But, see here, the letter was mine!” Morton exclaimed. “Where do I come in?”