After all, it's only a wild-cat scheme." "That doesn't sound very convincing," said Ida.

"Haven't you another reason ?" She had expected to find the suggestion useless when she made it, for she understood his attitude.

He would not take her money, and that, of course, was in one respect just as she would have had it; but, on the other hand, there were so many difficulties, and probably hazards, that she could save him.
"Well," he said quietly, "it's the only reason I can offer." There was silence for almost half a minute, and Ida felt that it was becoming singularly uncomfortable.

So much could have been said by both of them that their conversation up to this point had suggested to her the crossing of a river on very thin ice.

On the surface it was smooth, but the stream ran strong below, and there was the possibility that at any moment one of them might plunge through.