But I've got a scheme for getting behind the other man, whoever he is, and I've almost concluded to try it.' 'Will you tell me what it is ?' 'Don't I always tell you most things ?' Lady Maud smiled at the reservation implied in 'most.' 'After all you have done for me, I should have no right to complain if you never told me anything,' she answered.

'Do as you think best.

You know that I trust you.' 'That's right, and I appreciate it,' answered the millionaire.

'In the first place, you're not going to be divorced.

I suppose that's settled.' Lady Maud opened her clear eyes in surprise.
'You didn't know that, did you ?' asked Mr.Van Torp, enjoying her astonishment.
'Certainly not, and I can hardly believe it,' she answered.
'Look here, Maud,' said her companion, bending his heavy brows in a way very unusual with him, 'do you seriously think I'd let you be divorced on my account?
That I'd allow any human being to play tricks with your good name by coupling it with mine in any sort of way?
If I were the kind of man about whom you had a right to think that, I wouldn't deserve your friendship.' It was not often that Rufus Van Torp allowed his face to show feeling, but the look she saw in his rough-hewn features for a moment almost frightened her.