She shook her head. “Money doesn’t matter. I have all we want.” She pulled a long envelope out of the bedclothes and put it into my hand. “Look, it’s for you.”
I opened the envelope blankly and shook out a bundle of bearer bonds. There were twenty thousand dollars. I pushed the bonds away from me and sat a little stunned, looking at her.
“They’re mine,” she said fiercely. “They’re for you and me—with that, surely we can go away and you can start again.”
I said, “But, Mardi, that’s a lot of money for a girl to have. How did you get it?”
She said, “At the Mackenzie Fabrics. I saved and I heard tips. Spencer invested for me ”
“I see.”
She began to cry. “Say you’ll take the money and come away with me, Nick—please….”
I rolled into bed beside her, shoving the envelope under her pillow. “Suppose we leave it until to-morrow? We’ll be able to think clearly to-morrow,” I said.
I felt her stiffen. “No,” she said, “it must be now. I couldn’t sleep. I must know. It’s so important to me.”
“Why is it, Mardi? Why should you want to hide yourself away?”