"Here's the memorandum. They said they were mostly bonds, and very good ones."
With the slip of paper in his hand the banker leaned back in the chair, and took a longer time than was necessary to scan the poor little list. In reality he was turning over in his mind the unexpected features of the case, venturing a peep at Diane as she sat meekly awaiting the end of his perusal.
"Hasn't it occurred to you," he asked, at last, "that you could leave your affairs in Hargous' hands, and still turn over to your mother-in-law whatever sums he paid you?"
"Yes; but she wouldn't take the money unless she thought it was her very own."
"But it isn't her very own. It's yours."
"I want to make it hers. I want to transfer it to her absolutely—so that no one else, not even I, shall have a claim upon it. There must be ways of doing that."
"There are ways of doing that, but as far as she's concerned it comes to the same thing. If she won't touch the income, she will refuse to accept the principal."
"I've thought of that, too; and it's among the reasons why I've come to you. I hoped you'd help me—"