"And if you marry?" he said curiously. "Even then." She dismissed the return to the personal with the first quick movement of her hand and continued: "I should say, you are the best hated man in Wall Street." "That’s not exactly inside information." "No one is going to come to your help out of friendship." "True." "If Majendie and the Atlantic Trust Company fail, nothing in this world can pull you through," she said, seeking in some uncontrolled movement of his an answer to the statement that was in reality a question. From the moment she had begun to question him, he experienced a sudden change. He was no longer dealing with a woman, but with an element he had outguessed a hundred times. All at once an odd idea came to him which struck him as stupendously ridiculous, and yet made him glower in covert admiration at the woman who watched him while seemingly engaged with the rearrangement of her draperies. "Is it possible, after all," he thought, "that that ambitious little head is playing with both Majendie and me, and that she is setting her cap for the survivor?" He came back, reseated himself, and said, with an appearance of candor which would have deceived most people: "You say Majendie is coming here tonight?" "Yes." "Do you know where he is this afternoon?" "Yes." "And the object of his visit?" "The object is easy to guess," she said indifferently. "You know perfectly well that he is in conference with Fontaine, Marx, and Gunther, and what you wish to know is whether they are going to stand aside and let him sink. Are you ready to answer my two questions?" "And when will you know if he has failed or succeeded?" "Tonight." "He will tell you?" "I shall know tonight," she said, with an evasive smile. "What’s your private opinion?" "They will come to his assistance," she said carefully. "Because they are his personal friends," he said, with an accent of raillery. "Naturally." "You believe Majendie will pull through?" "I do." She looked at him a moment, and asked the question, not so much to receive an answer as to judge from his manner: "Can the Associated Trust meet its obligations on Wednesday without assistance?" "I can," he said quietly, and to himself he added: "There—if Majendie has set her to pump me, little good that’ll do him." "But if the Atlantic Trust Company shuts its doors," she persisted, "you are caught?" "That is the general opinion." "Will you fail?" "No." She was quiet a moment, dissatisfied, looked away from him and then said: "So you don’t care to know what I shall learn to-night?" "My dear lady, I won’t tell you a thing," he said, with a laugh, "so stop trying. Leave us to fight our own battles. Plot all you want in your cunning head your little feminine plans, but don’t get beyond your depth." "I see you believe I’m interested in Majendie," she said, with a shrug of her shoulders. "You are not very well informed."