"Hullo, Dreadnought!" he exclaimed. "What's wrong with my garrulous aunt? Has the party broken up early or weren't you a success?" "I wasn't a success," Phipps confessed grimly. "Look here, Dredlinton, are you sober enough to talk horse common sense?" "Sober? My God, can you tell me how any one can get a drink here!" was the injured reply. "I was just off somewhere else. One bottle of champagne, if you please, between two of us, and the liqueur brandies were served with the soup. Call this--a Christian country!" "Then if you're sober, and for once you seem to be," Phipps said, "just listen to me. Listen hard, mind, and don't interrupt. Have you ever wondered why I put you on the Board of the B.& I.?" "My title, I suppose--and social position." "Rot!" Phipps answered scornfully. "Your title and your social position aren't worth a damn to me. I put you on because of your wife." Dredlinton stared at him. "Why, you didn't even know her!" "Never mind. I knew her to look at. I wanted to know her. Now I do know her, and it hasn't done me much good." Dredlinton sat a little more erect in his place. Behind his cynical exterior, his evil brain had begun to work. "Look here, Phipps," he said, "I don't care about this conversation. If a man happens to admire another man's wife, her husband is scarcely the proper confidant." "Oh, yes, I know your theory!" Phipps scoffed. "You're willing enough to hide your head in the sand and take the goods the gods send you. That doesn't suit me. I happen to need your help." "My help?" Dredlinton repeated. "The poor little spider to help the mighty Phipps! You're not finding difficulties in the way of your suit, are you?" "If I do, it will be the worse for you," was the gruff reply. "As you're going on now, Dredlinton, it will be your wife, and your wife alone, who'll keep you out of jail before many weeks are past. How about that cheque to Farnham and Company last week? Farnham's say they never got it, but I hear it's come back through the bank with a queer endorsement upon it." Dredlinton caught at the tablecloth. The malicious gleam in his eyes gave way to a look of positive fear. "I can't remember--anything here--without any books," he muttered. "Tell me what it is you want, Phipps? I am ready to do any thing--you know that." "Your wife's friendship with this fellow Wingate has got to be nipped in the bud," Phipps declared. "Yes, but how?" Dredlinton demanded. "Josephine and I aren't anything to one another any more--you know that. She goes her own way." "She lives in your house," Phipps said. "You remain her husband nominally and you have therefore a certain amount of authority. You must forbid her to receive Wingate." "I'll forbid her, all right," Dredlinton assented, "but I won't guarantee that she'll obey."