"Why?" he asked.
"I hate the principle of gambling in commodities that are necessary for the poor," she answered. "I don't pretend to be a philanthropist, or charitable, or anything of that sort. I am wrapped up in my own life and its unhappiness. At the same time, I would never receive as a friend any one who indulged in that sort of speculation."
He looked at her thoughtfully, for once without that absorbing personal interest which had sprung up like a flame in his life. He felt that underneath her words lay real earnestness, real purpose.
"Tell me," he asked, a little abruptly, "if I started a crusade against the British and Imperial, outside the Stock Exchange altogether, if I embarked in a crude and illegal scheme to break them up, would you help me?"
"To the fullest extent of my power," she answered eagerly. "Tell me about it at once, please?"
"Not for a few days," he replied. "I have to think out many details, to get my tools together, and then to decide whether I should have a reasonable chance of success."
"Promise me that I shall help?" she insisted.
"I promise that you shall have the opportunity."
She rose from her chair and settled down in a corner of the settee. With a little half-conscious gesture she invited him to take the place by her side.
"Do you know," she said, "that you are making life much more endurable for me?"