"They think a great deal of those two," she proceeded. "If we could hurt them we could anger all the others."
"How do you propose to do it?" he inquired.
"You have that note of hers," she said. "You said she could pay at her leisure, but——" she eyed him keenly. "Stephen, I never believed that."
"You are quite right," he acknowledged. "I could come down on her to-morrow for the money." He looked at Mrs. Harmon impassively, but she was satisfied.
"Then do!" she urged, rising.
"I see," he said. "If her friends have to make up the money for her it puts her in the position of a beggar, makes her ridiculous, doesn't it?"
"More than that," she said eagerly. "If people know she has signed a note to you, they will think, don't you see, and say things."
His brows contracted, and from under them his eyes began to glow, characteristically. "What will they say?" he asked.
"Oh, there will be a great to-do, a quiet scandal, and under cover of it you—we retire with credit."
"You have thought it all out very well," he said.