"I'll tell you what I am going to do with Sassoon and Blood," she said suddenly. She had camped on another trunk, swinging one little foot incased within a red slipper, ten feet of the faded rug between them. "I am going to make--oh, a lot of trouble!" "You've started it already!" "Tell me--was there really a terrible row?" she asked, clapping her hands eagerly. "All over little me?" "H'm, yes--rather! We had some difficulty in stopping it!" He looked at her, amused, with the gaze of one who appreciates the irony of values. "Do you know, you pretty little atom, that you are setting in motion forces that may shake millions?" "Oh, how lovely! Tell me!" "Perhaps I'd better not!" he said grimly. "And suppose I told you that if you made Sassoon and Blood enemies over your charming little person, that Blood is capable of turning all the force of his newspapers against the Sassoon interests, making ugly revelations and bringing on a mild panic, would you persist?" "Certainly I should!" she exclaimed enthusiastically. "So is history made!" he thought to himself. "Now, answer me honestly." "Well?" "Don't you ever feel any temptation--" "With Sassoon--money?" He put out his arm in a gesture that swept the room. "You are satisfied with this?" "Do you know, that's just what he asked--the very words!" "Yes; Sassoon would be pretty sure to ask that. And you are never tempted?" "I thought you knew us!" she said proudly. "You don't--no, you don't understand at all!--or you wouldn't have asked that question!" But, not yet ready to talk, wishing to put a score of questions to him, she changed abruptly: "So, Your Honor, you are just curious about me?" "I am--very curious!" he said, looking at her with a touch of his magisterial manner. "It's a queer game you are playing!" "It's such fun!" "Yes," he said, unbending; "it is fun; but what's going to come of it?" She flung out her arms. "_Quien sabe!_" "I wonder what is the answer," he said, with a touch of solemnity. "There are so many possible answers!" "Oh, now, Your Honor," she said, with a pouting look, a little restless, too, under his fixed gaze, "are we to be as serious as all that?" "You girls are marvelous," he said in a lighter tone, "and you don't even appreciate the wonders you accomplish!" "Go on! Cross-examine me! It's a new experience!" she said, dropping her hands into her lap resignedly, with mock submission. She felt as though she were playing a great rôle, and that before an audience which would not respond--which she was determined should respond; and yet, much as she wished to try his composure, she was still groping for the proper tactics. "Some day will you tell me something?" "I'm afraid, Your Honor, I'd tell you almost anything! What is it?" "Where you come from--your home--why you left--" "The story of my life--right away!" "I should be interested!"