"Most women are simpler, then?" "Much!" "And how do you do?" she said, her elbows on the table, leaning forward eagerly. "Just say flatly, 'How much?'" He ran a lean finger through the mounting mustache, smiling. "Usually, yes!" "And they all have their price?" "Not all, no; but all that I want," he answered frankly. "That must be quite exciting--the estimating, I mean," she said, to draw him out. "Imagine looking at a woman and saying: 'This one will cost me a thousand, this one ten thousand, and this one will be very, very expensive.' It must be quite amusing to see if you guess right!" "Very amusing--yes." "Sassoon, what's my price?" she asked abruptly. "I didn't say you had one." "You said all women you wanted." "Miss Baxter," he said slowly, "you began this conversation." "Yes--and let's drop all pretenses; let's talk to each other, since we are here. Let me know you as you really are. I wish it!" "Very well!" he said, pleased. He rested his elbows likewise on the table, scanning his left hand, turning the great emerald ring that adorned it. "I believe every woman has her price, under certain conditions: first, that you know the need of money, and, most important, that you are old enough to understand what things can be bought!" "You think I am too young?" "I am not sure! You are very romantic," he said, and as she laughed at this interpretation, he continued: "If you were thirty instead of twenty-two, you could not make a mistake!" "That's a curious way to put it!" "I am not speaking of ten thousand or twenty thousand dollars," he said quietly. "You are the exception. You are the sort of woman that would hold a man for years. Miss Baxter, do you remember what the Comte de Joncy told you?" "Ah, yes; he liked my eyes," she said, laughing. "He estimated them at a million each. He knew!" "What nonsense you are talking!" "I am talking of a career," he said quietly. "Consider it. It's worth considering!" "Ah, now I understand! Well, go on!" "Just a little glass?" he said, raising the champagne. "Sounds like Bowery melodrama," she said mockingly. "_The Wicked Millionaire_. Please be serious! It's so nice to talk of millions!" "If you knew what I know," he said, looking beyond her and shrugging his shoulders, "it would be easy to discuss! There's only one thing important in life, Miss Baxter. Money!" "And love?" "Love! You will love ten--twenty times! What do you know of such things?" he said rapidly. "You have a vague illusion before your eyes, and in reality, what is guiding you is the same principle of nature that governs all life. A woman in the state you are in now is really in a state of hysteria--an unnatural state, that causes you to do any number of illogical things, crazy things--" "As, for instance, falling in love?" "Falling in love with impossible people," he corrected. "What do you know of love, anyhow? I may know." "You!" she said scornfully.