"I didn't think you cared a damn," she said at last, "and it's pretty late in the day to make a change now. After all, there is Virginia." That was the cue to clinch the situation. "To hell with Virginia!" I announced. "I'd rather live with you as your friend than sleep with la Rutherford in ten thousand beds. I can't help it," I added boyishly. She leaned forward and sniffed. "You _have_ been drinking, haven't you?" she remarked. "Of course I have! Today, in town, I suddenly realized what a damn fool I'd been to throw away something really fine for something very second-rate. So I drank. Too much. And the more I drank the more I knew that I was right and that it was here where I belong, with you. If you don't want me to stay, I'll go over to the Country Club for the night. I'll even phone Jerry Rutherford for you--him and his moustache--but I'm damned if I'll go running back to Virginia. She's not pukka!" ("How'm I doing?" I added silently for the benefit of the Master of Ceremonies.) "Well--" she said, after a long pause. "Perhaps--It's so mixed up--Perhaps you'd better go to bed here and we can talk it over in the morning. All of us." I shook my head. "I don't want to hold any more mass-meetings on the state of our mutual affections. If you want that tenor tonsil-snatcher, you're welcome to him but I'm damned if I'll be a good sport about it. If you insist, I'll buy you a divorce, but I won't marry Virginia--that's final!" Germaine's face relaxed. She smiled. "We'll see how things look to you in the morning," she said. Now was the time to play the trump card. "Oh yes," I said. "I brought home a present for you." I walked over to the hanger in the corner and pulled the Tiffany packages from my overcoat pocket. "Here you are, Jimmie Tompkins," I said, "with all my alleged love." "Alleged is right!" But she picked eagerly at the wrappings and swiftly ferreted out the diamond brooch. "Why, Winnie, it's lovely--" she began, then whirled on me, her eyes blazing. "Is this a joke?" she demanded. "Of course not! What's the matter?" Her laugh was wild. "Oh, nothing, Winnie. Nothing at all. It's just that you should have decided to give _me_--on _her_ birthday--a brooch with her initials in diamonds. See them! V.M.R." So that's the catch, I thought. I should have guessed there would be something wrong with the set-up and I kicked myself for not having bothered to trace out the monogram.