"I knew you would come," she said; and as he helped her out he thrilled to the touch of her hand. At odd times before she had seemed old and blase, but now she was young and all-alive. He dismissed the taxi without a thought of his business and they hurried up to her apartments. She let herself in and as she locked the door behind them she reached up and took his big hat. "You must stay a while," she said. "The servants are gone and I have no one to protect me if they come to serve the papers. Just start the fire--and if anyone knocks don't let them break down the door." She smiled again and a sudden giddiness seemed to blind Rimrock and make him doubt where he was. He looked about at the silken rugs and the luxurious hangings on the walls and wondered if it was the same place as before. Even when he lit the laid fire and sank down on a divan he still felt the sweet confusion of a dream; and then she came back, suddenly transformed by a soft house-gown, and looked him questioningly in the face. "Can you guess," she asked as she sat down beside him, "what it was that he wanted me to do? No, not to betray you or get possession of your stock--all he asked was that I should marry you." "Marry me!" exclaimed Rimrock and his keen, staring eyes suddenly narrowed as she bowed her head. "Yes, marry you," she said. "That was what made it so hard. Did you notice, when I stopped inviting you here? I was afraid, my Rimrock; I was afraid I might forget and--marry you. That was the one spot where Stoddard's plan failed, he forgot that I might fall in love. I loved you, Rimrock, loved you too much to marry you, and so I broke up all his plans. If I had married you, don't you see how easy it would have been for me to get hold of your stock? And that girl out there--the one I don't like--she would have thrown her vote to Stoddard. That alone would give him control, they would have fifty per cent. of the stock." "No they wouldn't," corrected Rimrock, "not if you've got that two thousand. That would give us fifty-one per cent!" A shadow of annoyance passed over her face, as if some part of her plan had gone wrong, and then her eyes took on a fire. "'_Us_?'" she said. "Would you have married me, Rimrock? But surely, not for the stock! Oh, I wish sometimes----" She stopped abruptly and looked at him strangely and then she hurried on. "Ah, no," she sighed, "that can never be--you are in love with that other woman--out there. When you met her at the opera, you forgot all about me. You went off and left me alone. If Whitney H. Stoddard had called me up then!" Her eyes flashed dangerously and she looked away, at which Rimrock glanced quickly at his watch. "By--grab!" he exclaimed half-rising to his feet, "do you know it's half-past twelve? Say, where's your telephone? I've got a deal on in Navajoa and I've just got to find out where I am!" She rose up suddenly and turned to face him with a look of queenly scorn.