Listen, Maggie!" The impulse had suddenly come upon him, since his plan to awaken Maggie by her psychological reactions had apparently failed, to tell her everything.

"Listen, Maggie! I'm going to lay all my cards on the table, and show you every card I've played.

You were invited to come out to Cedar Crest because I schemed to have you come.
And the reason I schemed to have you invited was, I reasoned that being received in such a frank, generous, unsuspecting way, by a woman like Miss Sherwood, would make you sick of what you were doing and you would drop it of your own accord.

But it seems I reasoned wrong." "So--you were behind that!" she breathed.
"I was.

Though I couldn't have done it if Dick Sherwood hadn't been honestly infatuated with you.