The Flirt Part 35

"_You_!" She pointed at him.

"Let's have it."

"He told me"--she burst out furiously--"he said you were a professional sharper!"

"Oh, no. Old Pryor doesn't talk like that."

She came toward him. "He told me you were notorious over half of Europe," she cried vehemently. "He said he'd arrested you himself, once, in Rotterdam, for smuggling jewels, and that you were guilty, but managed to squirm out of it. He said the police had put you out of Germany and you'd be arrested if you ever tried to go back. He said there were other places you didn't dare set foot in, and he said he could have you arrested in this country any time he wanted to, and that he was going to do it if he found you'd been doing anything wrong. Oh, yes, he told me a few things!"

He caught her by the shoulder. "See here, Cora, do you believe all this tommy-rot?"

She shook his hand off instantly. "Believe it? I know it! There isn't a straight line in your whole soul and mind: you're crooked all over. You've been crooked with _me_ from the start. The moment that man began to speak, I knew every word of it was true. He came to me because he thought it was right: he hasn't anything against you on his own account; he said he _liked_ you! I _knew_ it was true, I tell you."

He tried to put his hand on her shoulder again, beginning to speak remonstratingly, but she cried out in a rage, broke away from him, and ran to the other end of the room.

"Keep away! Do you suppose I like you to touch me? He told me you always had been a wonder with women! Said you were famous for 'handling them the right way'--using them! Ah, that was pleasant information for _me_, wasn't it! Yes, I could have confirmed him on that point. He wanted to know if I thought you'd been doing anything of that sort here. What he meant was: Had you been using me?"

"What did you tell him?" The question rang sharply on the instant.

"Ha! That gets into you, does it?" she returned bitterly. "You can't overdo your fear of that man, I think, but _I_ didn't tell him anything. I just listened and thanked him for the warning, and said I'd have nothing more to do with you. How _could_ I tell him?

Wasn't it I that made papa lend you his name, and got Richard to hand over his money? Where does that put _me_?" She choked; sobs broke her voice. "Every--every soul in town would point me out as a laughing-stock--the easiest fool out of the asylum! Do you suppose _I_ want you arrested and the whole thing in the papers?

What I want is Richard's money back, and I'm going to have it!"

"Can you be quiet for a moment and listen?" he asked gravely.

"If you'll tell me what chance I have to get it back."

"Cora," he said, "you don't want it back."

"Oh? Don't I?"

"No." He smiled faintly, and went on. "Now, all this nonsense of old Pryor's isn't worth denying. I have met him abroad; that much is true--and I suppose I have rather a gay reputation----"

She uttered a jeering shout.

"Wait!" he said. "I told you I'd cut quite a swathe, when I first talked to you about myself. Let it go for the present and come down to this question of Lindley's investment----"

"Yes. That's what I want you to come down to."

"As soon as Lindley paid in his check I gave him his stock certificates, and cabled the money to be used at once in the development of the oil-fields----"

"What! That man told me you'd 'promoted' a South American rubber company once, among people of the American colony in Paris. The details he gave me sounded strangely familiar!"

"You'd as well be patient, Cora. Now, that money has probably been partially spent, by this time, on tools and labour and----"

"What are you trying to----"

"I'll show you. But first I'd like you to understand that nothing can be done to me. There's nothing 'on' me! I've acted in good faith, and if the venture in oil is unsuccessful, and the money lost, I can't be held legally responsible, nor can any one prove that I am. I could bring forty witnesses from Naples to swear they have helped to bore the wells. I'm safe as your stubborn friend, Mr. Trumble, himself. But now then, suppose that old Pryor is right--as of course he isn't--suppose it, merely for a moment, because it will aid me to convey something to your mind. If I were the kind of man he says I am, and, being such a man, had planted the money out of reach, for my own use, what on earth would induce me to give it back?"

"I knew it!" she groaned. "I knew you wouldn't!"

"You see," he said quietly, "it would be impossible. We must go on supposing for a moment: if I had put that money away, I might be contemplating a departure----"

"You'd better!" she cried fiercely. "He's going to find out everything you've been doing. He said so. He's heard a rumour that you were trying to raise money here; he told me so, and said he'd soon----"

"The better reason for not delaying, perhaps. Cora, see here!" He moved nearer her. "Wouldn't I need a lot of money if I expected to have a beautiful lady to care for, and----"

"You idiot!" she screamed. "Do you think I'm going with you?"

He flushed heavily. "Well, aren't you?" He paused, to stare at her, as she wrung her hands and sobbed with hysterical laughter.

"I thought," he went on, slowly, "that you would possibly even insist on that."

"Oh, Lord, Lord, Lord!" She stamped her foot, and with both hands threw the tears from her eyes in wide and furious gestures. "He told me you were married----"

"Did you let him think you hadn't known that?" demanded Corliss.

"I tell you I didn't let him think _anything_! He said you would never be able to get a divorce: that your wife hates you too much to get one from you, and that she'll never----"

"See here, Cora," he said harshly, "I told you I'd been married; I told you before I ever kissed you. You understood perfectly----"

"I did not! You said you _had_ been. You laughed about it. You made me think it was something that had happened a long time ago.

I thought of course you'd been divorced----"

"But I told you----"

"You told me after! And then you made me think you could easily get one--that it was only a matter of form and----"

"Cora," he interrupted, "you're the most elaborate little self-deceiver I ever knew. I don't believe you've ever faced yourself for an honest moment in----"

"Honest! _you_ talk about 'honest'! You use that word and face _me_?"

He came closer, meeting her distraught eyes squarely. "You love to fool yourself, Cora, but the role of betrayed virtue doesn't suit you very well. You're young, but you're a pretty experienced woman for all that, and you haven't done anything you didn't want to.

You've had both eyes open every minute, and we both know it. You are just as wise as----"

"You're lying and _you_ know it! What did _I_ want to make Richard go into your scheme for? You made a fool of me."

"I'm not speaking of the money now," he returned quickly. "You'd better keep your mind on the subject. Are you coming away with me?"

"What for?" she asked.

"What _for_?" he echoed incredulously. "I want to know if you're coming. I promise you I'll get a divorce as soon as it's possible----"

"Val," she said, in a tone lower than she had used since he entered the room; "Val, do you want me to come?"

"Yes."

"Much?" She looked at him eagerly.