"No!"
"Well, again, there'd be no question of money at present between him and me if you'd waited, and hadn't tangled yourself up in this beastly knot to spite me. Now I'll have to get you out of the tangle as best I can. You can't do it yourself, and Garth will hang on to you for the same motive you had—spite, if nothing more. Go with me to-night. Be brave. Make a scandal. Then for the sake of that mother of his—and for his pride if he has any, if not, for the appearance of it—he'll free you."
Marise was very pale. "A little while ago," she said, "you spoke of Zélie Marks being here to give—an excuse for divorce."
"Yes. That seems the likely thing. Garth probably arranged it when he expected money from me, to make divorce worth his while. Now we've had a row, more or less, and he knows that at best he can't get much. His cry is 'all or nothing.' He won't use Miss Marks as a pretext."
"I tell you he never intended to accept money!" insisted Marise.
"That's a new opinion of yours, isn't it?"
"I never felt he would touch it. But I didn't know surely. Now I do."
"I wonder how?"
"I do—that's all."
"Well, by Jove; I never expected to hear you taking Garth's part against me!" Tony exploded.