She inhaled in silence half a dozen puffs.

"I'm going to ask you an outrageous question," she said, at last.

"In the first place, I'm a severely business woman, and in the next I've got an uncle and a brother with cross-examining instincts, and, though I loathe them--the instincts, I mean--I can't get away from them.

We're down on the bedrock of things, you and I.Will you tell me, straight, why you went away to-day to--to"-- she hesitated--"to pawn your watch and chain, instead of waiting till you got to London ?" Paul threw out his arms in a wide gesture.

"Why--your servants--" She cast the just lighted cigarette into the fire, rose and clapped her hands on his shoulders, her face aflame.