"It's a bad business, I'm afraid," he said, as though summing up rather than beginning.
"What does the woman want with me?"
"That, I fear, is painfully evident. You must have heard of the Eveleth smash a couple of months ago. Or—let me see!—I think it was just when you were in New York. No; you'd be likely not to hear of it. The Eveleths have so carefully cut their American acquaintance for so many years that they've created a kind of vacuum around themselves, out of which the noise of their doings doesn't easily penetrate. They belong to that class of American Parisians who pose for going only into French society."
"I know the kind."
"Mrs. Grimston could tell you all about them, of course. Equally at home as she is in the best French and American circles, she hears a great many things she'd rather not hear."
"She needn't listen to 'em."
"Unfortunately a woman in her position, with a daughter like Marion, is obliged to listen. But that's rather the end of the story—"
"And I want the beginning, Grimston, if you don't mind. I want to know why this Diane should be after me."
"She's after money," Mr. Grimston declared, bluntly. "She's after money, and you'd better let me manage her. It would save you the trouble of the refusal you'll be obliged to make."
"Well, tell me about her and I'll see."