"Do you mean a receipt for the diamonds?"
"Not exactly, Cynthia, I—"
"Miss Ratchford, if you please!" she exclaimed. "Miss Ratchford to you, always, after this!"
"Oh, very well! Now look here! I'm done with soft words and foolishness!"
He took a sudden step nearer her, and she shrank back. Colonel Ashley, who had worked himself to a position, where, hidden behind a screen of bushes, he could see and hear, watched closely.
"Foolishness?" the woman questioned.
"Yes, foolishness! You know the trouble I'm in. I've got to have money! You can get it for me!"
"I?"
"Yes. And, by the eternal, you've got to! Do you think I'm going to ruin just because you couldn't stand a little rough treatment now and then? Why, better women than you would be glad to come back to me. I'll take you back!"
"Take me back! Oh, my God!"