"Well, I should have to pay alimony—then."
"I'll guarantee you against that. Moreover, she'd get her divorce in any event, and then you'd have nothing."
"You're quite right. A pretty woman, who knows how to have hysterics, can get anything in a court of law. My wife's an expert in the latter accomplishment, and she's good-looking enough to corrupt any jury that was ever empanelled. I give in, it's no use playing a losing game. Now for the second."
"The second is purely confidential."
"Go on."
"I'd like to know exactly what you and Miss Fitzgerald expected to receive for this transaction, and whether these letters," producing the ones Madame Darcy had given him, "do not relate solely to it?"
Darcy laughed.
"You're paying rather a high price for that young lady's character," he said.
"A woman's character should be above any price, Colonel Darcy. We seem to have differing standards of value, which does not, however, alter the main question of whether you will accede to my conditions."
"Certainly I will, and permit me to tell you that you're paying more than either of them is worth."