"I know she is a woman, Colonel Darcy." For some time there was no sound in the room but the scratching of pen to paper. At length, however, the Colonel raised his head from his work, and, pushing it towards the Secretary, said laconically:-- "Will it do?" "Quite," replied Stanley, after perusing it. "Will you sign it, please? Thanks, I'll witness." "There," said the Colonel, rising. "That closes our interview." "Not quite yet, Colonel. I've still an advantageous offer to make to you, in reward for some further concessions of a different character. The case for the government is closed. Our private affairs yet remain to be settled." "By Gad! You're right there! They do!" "There is that little trifle of the forty thousand pounds. Suppose I was to give you that amount." "What!!!" exclaimed his hearer, petrified with astonishment. "You mean to say that you will give it to me?" "Never, Colonel, never! I shall go to the Victoria Street Branch of the Bank of England in London, say the day after to-morrow, to warn them about the money. If you draw it out before that time, why, it's my misfortune. I'll be perfectly frank with you, Colonel Darcy. My government doesn't want the handling of this coin, its disposal is left to me. You see it's for everybody's interest to lose this large sum. When the cabinet knows that the truth has been discovered--they know it now, by the way--it was cabled in cipher--there's not one of them who would touch a penny of it. The company can't receive it without giving a receipt, which might prove damaging evidence; while neither government can take it without becoming a party to the transaction. I'm willing to give it to you, if you'll do two things in return. Two disagreeable things, I admit, to a conscientious man; but they're each worth twenty thousand pounds." "I'd sell my soul for that!" said he with a laugh. "My dear Colonel, are you sure you have it to sell?" "What are the conditions?" "First, that you consent to a divorce from Madame Darcy." "Humph! That's a nice thing to ask a man. Moreover, it's not worth anything. In fact it's a clear loss. My wife's property, of which I have the use, is worth far more than that." "But you don't have the use of it, Colonel." "Well, I should have to pay alimony--then." "I'll guarantee you against that. Moreover, she'd get her divorce in any event, and then you'd have nothing." "You're quite right. A pretty woman, who knows how to have hysterics, can get anything in a court of law. My wife's an expert in the latter accomplishment, and she's good-looking enough to corrupt any jury that was ever empanelled. I give in, it's no use playing a losing game. Now for the second." "The second is purely confidential." "Go on." "I'd like to know exactly what you and Miss Fitzgerald expected to receive for this transaction, and whether these letters," producing the ones Madame Darcy had given him, "do not relate solely to it?" Darcy laughed.