Larry could now perceive the adventure's general outlines.

There was nothing original in what he perceived; and the plan, so far as he could see it, would not have interested him in the least as a novel creation of the brain were not Maggie its central figure, and were not Barney and Old Jimmie her directing agents.
A pretty woman was being used as a lure to some rich man, and his infatuation for her was to cause him to part with a great deal of money: some variation of this ancient idea, which has a thousand variations--that was the plan.
Obviously the enterprise was not directed at some gross victim whose palate might permit his swallowing anything.

If any one item essentially proved this, it was the item of the overwhelmingly respectable chaperon.
Maggie was being presented as an innocent, respectable, young girl; and the victim, whoever he was, was the type of man for whom only such a type of girl would have a compelling appeal.
And this man--who was he?
Ever and again he tried to place the man's voice, with its faintly familiar quality, but it kept dodging away like a dream one cannot quite recall.
The whole business made Larry rage within himself.

Maggie to be used in such a way! He did not blame Maggie, for he understood her.

Also he loved her.