"I'll show you. But first I'd like you to understand that nothing can be done to me. There's nothing `on' me! I've acted in good faith, and if the venture in oil is unsuccessful, and the money lost, I can't be held legally responsible, nor can any one prove that I am. I could bring forty witnesses from Naples to swear they have helped to bore the wells. I'm safe as your stubborn friend, Mr. Trumble, himself. But now then, suppose that old Pryor is right--as of course he isn't--suppose it, merely for a moment, because it will aid me to convey something to your mind. If I were the kind of man he says I am, and, being such a man, had planted the money out of reach, for my own use, what on earth would induce me to give it back?" "I knew it!" she groaned. "I knew you wouldn't!" "You see," he said quietly, "it would be impossible. We must go on supposing for a moment: if I had put that money away, I might be contemplating a departure----" "You'd better!" she cried fiercely. "He's going to find out everything you've been doing. He said so. He's heard a rumour that you were trying to raise money here; he told me so, and said he'd soon----" "The better reason for not delaying, perhaps. Cora, see here!" He moved nearer her. "Wouldn't I need a lot of money if I expected to have a beautiful lady to care for, and----" "You idiot!" she screamed. "Do you think I'm going with you?" He flushed heavily. "Well, aren't you?" He paused, to stare at her, as she wrung her hands and sobbed with hysterical laughter. "I thought," he went on, slowly, "that you would possibly even insist on that." "Oh, Lord, Lord, Lord!" She stamped her foot, and with both hands threw the tears from her eyes in wide and furious gestures. "He told me you were married----" "Did you let him think you hadn't known that?" demanded Corliss. "I tell you I didn't let him think _anything_! He said you would never be able to get a divorce: that your wife hates you too much to get one from you, and that she'll never----" "See here, Cora," he said harshly, "I told you I'd been married; I told you before I ever kissed you. You understood perfectly----" "I did not! You said you _had_ been. You laughed about it. You made me think it was something that had happened a long time ago. I thought of course you'd been divorced----" "But I told you----" "You told me after! And then you made me think you could easily get one--that it was only a matter of form and----" "Cora," he interrupted, "you're the most elaborate little self-deceiver I ever knew. I don't believe you've ever faced yourself for an honest moment in----" "Honest! _you_ talk about `honest'! You use that word and face _me_?"