Then a sudden disturbing thought came to him.
"But, Cordelia, how about our book? What would be done with that in the meantime? And what will become of it in the end, if you leave?" He had often confessed to her that he was no business man, that even the thought of approaching an editor or a publisher could take away his appetite for a day.
"Let's not talk about that!" Her hands were on his shoulders now, and she was reading his face hungrily.
"But what shall be done with it?"
"Well, everything is done!" she said, reluctantly, he thought. Then, slipping away from him for a minute or two, she fluttered back to the room with a bit of paper in her hand.
"And as a sign and proof of the same, permit me to present you with something which is entirely your own!"
It was Slater & Slater's check for one thousand dollars, already indorsed and marked accepted. He held it out to her, determined.
"You know I can't accept this," he said. But she was equally determined.
"But you shall, and must!"
Again he refused it, absolutely, proudly, she thought; and again she thrust it back on him. Then she saw that it was useless, and with that discovery a new trouble came to her.