"Do you mean," she went on, "that we have nothing?"
"I do not! We have all sorts of things—paintings, books, your jewelry. Simply we have no money. Now let me alone!"
"But what do you propose doing?" she asked. "We can’t go on, like this, without a penny. How do you propose to pay Angelica?"
He raised his upper lip in a brutal sort of sneer.
"Oh, you don’t know, do you? Of course not! You’re perfectly innocent, aren’t you? You never suspected, did you, who it was paid for the clothes on your back? It’ll be such a shock to you, dear soul! In our need we shall have to turn to Eddie! He’ll pay Angelica, he’ll pay me, and he’ll pay you. God bless Eddie!"
That blow told. Polly winced under it. She turned away slowly and went out of the room. Angelica followed her, and, looking back from the doorway, she saw Vincent writing again.
II
Angelica had started an avalanche. She was deeply impressed and interested. She had no desire to go now; she wished to see the tremendous end.
Events moved with satisfactory speed. Polly went at once to Mrs. Russell’s room, to find her just arrived at home from a Stricken Belgium card-party. They closed the door; they were shut in there a long time together. They must, of course, have summoned by telephone the two unhappy and disturbed gentlemen who came in a motor-car later in the afternoon.
When these came, they all went into the library, where Vincent still sat. There was a dreadful scene. The newcomers were Polly’s lawyer and the trustee of her first husband’s estate, and they at once attacked Vincent. The trustee was non-legal and devoid of wise caution; he shouted threats at Vincent, and Vincent cursed him in the voice of a bull. He was beside himself with fury. The lawyer tried to frighten them both into silence, but he was himself so appalled and outraged by their ignorance of what was and what wasn’t libelous that his arguments were weak.