“Not for me,” said Dick. “Thank Heaven my hands are clean, and I can do whatever I believe to be right.”
“Yes, for you,” answered Mr. Early suavely, and then he broke into a suppressed laugh. “Why, you young idiot, if you care to be told, your feet are limed, and the sooner you recognize the fact the better.”
“What do you mean?” cried Dick with fierce resentment.
“Oh, sit down, my boy,” said Mr. Early, still amiable. “There’s no use in rampaging. I just want to tell you a little story and show you a little piece of paper.”
Dick sat down and glared at his guest.
“Your wife—” Dick started up with something like a groan. “Yes, your wife, Percival. You see a man does not always stand alone. Your wife has a necklace of worthless rubies, which she has told you was a present from our dear departed Swami. If people only knew about it, there might be a certain amount of scandal about a young woman’s receiving a supposedly valuable gift from a swindler who was also a social idol. Don’t go off your head, Dick. You’ve got to listen to me. As a matter of fact, she lied to you when she told you he gave them to her. She bought them; and she had not the money to pay for them. I suppose it was at his suggestion that she borrowed the sum from me. That would have been all right, except that she gave me a note signed by Richard Percival, and she quite omitted to tell me that her husband was away at the time. I found that out by chance afterward, after I had supplied her demand. Would you like to see the forgery, Dick? It’s an ugly word, but we might just as well be plain with each other.”
Dick’s tongue had grown dry and speechless, so that he seemed to have no power to check this recital, and now all he could do was to reach out an eager hand.
“Not so fast,” said Mr. Early. “It’s mine, not yours. And it will take more than the five thousand dollars out of which it swindled me to buy it back. It sounds bad, doesn’t it? A forgery, connected with a rascal who was the talk of the country. I should not myself care to pose again as the dupe of a woman and her friendly counterfeiter, but that would be a small matter compared with the hail of scandal that would whir around the head of that pretty little butterfly, your wife.”
“Scandal! My wife!” Dick staggered to his feet.
“That is what we all want to avoid, don’t we?” Mr. Early asked with his fat smile.