"Oh, I don't know. You might get tired of me. We might fight like cat and dog for want of common interests, of something to talk about. You would never take to drink like so many of the men, but I might--well, I'm glad dinner is ready at last." But she played with her food. That she was repressing an intense and mounting excitement Ruyler did not doubt, and he also suspected that she wished to broach some particular subject from which she turned in panic. They were alone after coffee had been served, and he said abruptly: "What is it, Helene? Do you want money? I have an idea that Polly Roberts and Aileen Lawton borrow heavily from you, and that they may have cleaned you out completely on the first--" "How dear of you to guess--or rather to get so close. It's worse than that. I--that is--well--poor Polly went quite mad over a pearl necklace at Shreve's and they told her to take it and wear it for a few days, thinking, I suppose, she would never give it up and would get the money somehow. She--oh, it's too dreadful--she lost it--and she dares not tell Rex--he's lost quite a lot of money lately--and she's mad with fright--and I told her--" "Where did she lose it? It's not easy to lose a necklace, especially when the clasp is new." "She thinks it was stolen from her neck at the theater--you heard what that man said." "Ah! What was the price of the necklace?" "Twenty thousand dollars. The pearls weren't so very large, of course, but Polly never had had a pearl necklace--" "I'll let her have the money to pay for it on one condition--that it is a transaction, between Roberts and myself--" "No! No! Not for anything!" "I've lent him money before--" "But he'd never forgive Polly. He--he's one of those men who make an awful fuss on the first of every month when his wife's bills come in." "There must be a bass chorus on the first of every month in San Francisco--" "Oh, please don't jest. She must have this money." "She may have it--on those terms. I'll have no business dealings with women of the Polly Roberts sort. That would be the last I'd ever see of the twenty thousand--" "I never thought you were stingy!" Ruyler, in spite of his tearing anxiety, laughed outright. "Is that your idea of how the indulgent American husband becomes rich?" "Oh--of course I wouldn't have you lose such a sum. I really have learned the value of money in the abstract, although I can't care for it as much as men do." "I have no great love of money, but there is a certain difference between a miser and a levelheaded business man--" "Price, I must have that money. Polly--oh, I am afraid she will kill herself!" "Not she. A more selfish little beast never breathed. She'll squeeze the money out of some one, never fear! But I think I'll lock up your jewels in case you are tempted to raise money on them for her--Darling!" Helene, without a sound, had fainted. CHAPTER IX