'It might be a pleasant surprise to—to your friend,' he went on. 'And, if you'll let me do it, it will, Miss Ryle, be rather a pleasant change to me.'
'Why do you do it?' she asked again.
He made her an odd answer—very odd, to come from him. 'Because of the look in your eyes, my dear.'
His tone was free from all offence now; he spoke as a father might. If his words surprised her to wonder, he had no better understanding of hers.
'You too, you too!' she whispered, and the eyes which had moved him grew misty.
'Come, don't refuse me,' he said. 'Take it back to your friend. He'll find a use for it.'
He seemed to touch a spring in her, to give her a cue.
'Yes, yes!' she assented eagerly. 'Perhaps there would be a use for it. Do you give it me? Freely, freely?'
'Freely,' answered Fricker. 'And all you want shall be said to Mrs. Trevalla.'
Peggy opened her bag and began to put the notes in; but she looked still at Fricker.