He paused in his precise pacing. "The four of us will have to talk it over," he said, "as soon as I have that drink you offered me." "Okay," I agreed. "The girls are in Jimmie's bedroom. Perhaps you know the way better than I do. I'll follow your lead." Germaine was propped up in a frilly four-poster bed amid a wallow of small satin cushions. I barely had time to notice that she was wearing a rather filmy night gown, when I turned to reap the whirl-wind in the form of five foot six of red-haired determination and curves. "Now, Winnie," she commanded. "What's all this _nonsense_?" I caught a tell-tale glimpse of uncharitable diamonds at my wife's breast and hastily averted my eyes from the monogram. "Virginia," I replied, "There's nothing wrong. Nothing at all. It was just that yesterday I realized that I couldn't go through with it. I don't pretend to be moral but I won't go in for mixed-doubles at my age. It's undignified." "What!" Mrs. Rutherford's mouth hung open in amazement. "Only this, Virginia. Whatever I have been in the past, I'm going to try to be different in the future. I know it's hard on you but--" The red-head laughed like tumbrils rolling to the guillotine. "Nothing to what a breach of promise suit would be to you, Winnie dear. Don't forget I have your letters." "Now we're getting somewhere," I remarked. "How much?" "Winnie!" my wife gasped. "It's blackmail!" "Of course it's blackmail," I agreed, "and there are times when it's wiser to pay than to fight. This is not one of them. Virginia, I'm not interested in buying back those letters. Save them for a rainy day. I'm going to settle with your husband. How about it, Jerry?" "You swine!" Mrs. Rutherford was going definitely Grade-B in the pinches. "Do you think that you can drive a wedge between me and my husband?" "No, my wife has already done that for me. He loves her and he tells me that she loves him. I've told him that they're welcome to a divorce but I won't have my house used for any hanky-panky and won't have people gossip about Germaine. They can make up their minds what they want to do about it." "You were saying downstairs, Tompkins," the doctor hastily interrupted, "that you would listen to any reasonable offer." "Check! What's your price?" "I want out," said Dr. Rutherford. "Lend me the value of a year's practice--fifteen thousand would cover it--and I'll get in a substitute and take a crack at the Army Medical Corps. They've been after me for a couple of years." "Done!" I said, "and if you like I'll have the bank dole it out to Virginia while you're gone, so she won't use it up too fast." "What about me?" asked my wife. "I thought Jerry said he loved me." "What's _your_ price?" I asked.