After Jim dosed her, he was tactful enough to hold his tongue and improve the fire, without clattering the poker and tongs. Then he pulled down the blinds and drew the curtains, and altered the shades of the electrics, so that Leah might not be overpowered by the glare. "It's quite like a new honeymoon," she said, sarcastically. The drug was doing its renovating work, and her original devil was returning to a swept and garnished house, with seven other spirits more wicked than himself. Jim took the remark seriously, and coloured with pleasure. "I believe we'd get on rippin'," said he, enthusiastically. "If we only had the money I believe we'd be as happy as birds." "They can't be very happy in this cold weather," replied Leah, seeing plainly that Jim's amiability was owing to a selfish fear of reproval for his iniquities. "Here's the tea. I don't want any just now, as the sal volatile is doing me good. You can eat." "Oh, can't I, just," said Jim, when the footman left and he was filling himself a cup. "Th' skatin's given me an appetite. 'Sides, I want to get into form; as I've somethin' serious to say about this insurance business." Leah looked up suddenly. "I thought you had given that the go-by." "No--o--o," drawled her husband, not meeting her eyes. "Course, th' pater's a good sort an' all that. But his arrangement will give us a howlin' bad time for the next few years." "So I told you." "Well, then," Jim fiddled nervously with a piece of toast, "why not get the twenty thousand?" "It could be managed, of course, with some little difficulty." "Through that Russian Johnny?" "Demetrius? Yes." "You've see him, then?" "To-day. He'll see the thing through." "What's his price?" Leah smiled blandly, as she thought of what Jim would say did she reply honestly to this question. But she did not intend to. It seemed to her that Jim was driving her towards the very path which Lionel, unknowingly, wished her to avoid. It was useless to fight against fate, so she decided, and like many another person, she laid the blame on those scapegoats, the stars. She was now completely dominated by the selfish influence of the great god Mammon, and the lesser sin of lying was swallowed up in the greater one of idolatry. "He'll want a few thousands, of course," she said mendaciously; "but, as yet, we have not fixed any sum." "Hum," muttered Jim, suspiciously. "I thought he'd want something more than money." Leah rose indignantly, and proclaimed a virtue that her conscience assured her she might yet lose. "I am an honest woman, Jim," she said haughtily, "and, married or unmarried, I should never allow any man to make love to me." "Seems to me you do." "Only to pass away the time. I stop short when----" "When their hearts are broken," growled her husband. "Upon my soul, Leah, I'm straighter than you are." "I doubt that, since you swear by what you haven't got."