"Oh, that is a secret."
"Then if it is a secret tell it at once."
"I'll tell you just to disappoint you," Jack returned with a grin. "It is only about some etchings that the Count brought over. Mrs. Harbinger has bought a couple as a present for Tom."
"She had better be careful," Mrs. Neligage observed. "Tom thinks more of the collection now than he does of anything else in the world. But what are you mixed up in the Count's transactions for?"
"She asked me to fix it, and besides the poor devil needed to sell them to raise the wind. I'm too used to being hard up myself not to feel for him."
"But you wrote me that you detested the Count."
"So I do, but you can't help doing a fellow a good turn, can you, just because you don't happen to like him?"
She laughed lightly.
"You are a model of good nature. I wish you'd show it to May Calthorpe."
Her son looked down at her with a questioning glance.