"Well, she can refuse to give him his divorce, can't she?" Billy said
sensibly.
"But CAN she?" Magsie was obviously not sure.
"Of course she can!"
"But she doesn't want him. I went to see her--"
"Went to see her? For heaven's sake, what did you do that for?"
"Because I cared for him," Magsie said, coloring.
"For heaven's sake! You had your nerve! And what sort of a person is
she?"
"Oh, beautiful! I knew her before. And she said that she would not
interfere. She was as willing as he was; then---"
"But now she's changed her mind?"
"Apparently." Magsie scowled into space.
"Well, what does HE say?" Billy asked after a pause.
"Why, he can't--or he seems to think he can't--force her."
"Well, I don't know that he can--here. There are states--"
"Yes, I know, but we're here in New York," Magsie said briefly. A
second later she sat up, suddenly energetic and definite in voice and
manner. "But there ARE ways of forcing her, as she will soon see," said
Magsie in a venomous voice. "I have his letters. I could put the whole
thing into a lawyer's hands. There's such a thing as-as a breach of
promise suit--"
"Not with a married man," Billy interrupted. Magsie halted, a little
dashed.
"How do you know?" she demanded.
"You'd have to show you had been injured--and you've known all along he
was married," Billy said.
"Well"--Magsie was scarlet with anger--"I could make him sorry, don't
worry about that!" she said childishly.
"Of course, if his wife DID consent, and then changed her mind, and you
sent his letters to her," Billy said after cogitation. "It might--he
may have glossed it all over, to her, you know."
"Exactly!" Magsie said triumphantly. "I knew there was a way! She's a
sensitive woman, too. You know you can't go as far as you like with a
girl, Billy," she went on argumentatively, "without paying for it
somehow!"
"Make him pay!" said the practical Billy.
"I don't want--just money," Magsie said discontentedly. "I want--I
don't want to be interfered with. I believe I shall do just that," she
went on with a brightening eye. "I'll write him---"
"Tell him. Ever so much more effective than writing!" Billy suggested.
"Tell him then," Magsie did not mean to betray his identity if she
could help it, "that I really will send these things on to his
wife--that's just what I'll do!"
"Are there children?" asked Billy.
"Two--girls," Magsie said with barely perceptible hesitation.
"Grown?" pursued the visitor.
"Ye-es, I believe so." Magsie was too clever to multiply unnecessary
untruths. She began to dress.
"What are you doing this afternoon?" asked Billy. "I have the Butlers'
car for the day. Joe brought it into town to be fixed, and can't drive
it out until tomorrow. We might do something. It's a gorgeous car."
"I'm not doing one thing in the world. Where's Joe?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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