"Only three hundred."
"Only three hundred." The voice was of the texture of Bessemer cooled. "How much do we spend a month, Jim?"
"Why—why, about five or six hundred, I guess." He shifted uneasily. "Listen, Jack. Bronson'll pay that back. He's in a little trouble. He's made a mistake about a girl out in Woodmere——"
"And he knows you're famous for being an easy mark, so he comes to you," interrupted Jaqueline.
"No." He denied this formally.
"Don't you suppose I could use that three hundred dollars?" she demanded. "How about that trip to New York we couldn't afford last November?"
The lingering smile faded from Mather's face. He went over and shut the door to the outer office.
"Listen, Jack," he began, "you don't understand this. Bronson's one of the men I eat lunch with almost every day. We used to play together when we were kids, we went to school together. Don't you see that I'm just the person he'd be right to come to in trouble? And that's just why I couldn't refuse."
Jaqueline gave her shoulders a twist as if to shake off this reasoning.
"Well," she answered decidedly, "all I know is that he's no good. He's always lit and if he doesn't choose to work he has no business living off the work you do."