“I—I’ll think it over,” he said, feebly; “I’ll stay here with you for a couple of days, and––”
“You will do nothing of the sort!” she cried. “Do you suppose I’m going to spoil my chances for a separation, if I want to apply, by letting you live in the same house with me? Why, that would be wasting the two months already gone.”
He did not comprehend, and he was afraid to ask for an explanation. The term “failure 121 to provide” was the only one he could get through his head; “desertion” was out of the question. His brow was wet with the sweat of a losing conflict. He saw that he would have to accept her ultimatum and trust to luck to provide a way out of the difficulty. Time would justify him, he was confident. In the meantime, he would ease his conscience by returning the check, knowing full well that it would not be accepted. He would then take it, of course, with reservations. Every dollar was to be paid back when he obtained a satisfactory position.
He determined, however, to extract a promise from her before giving in.
“I will consent, Nellie, on the condition that you stop seeing this fellow Fairfax and riding around in his big green car. I won’t stand for that.”
Nellie smiled, more to herself than to him. She had Fairfax in the meshes. He was safe. The man was madly in love with her. The instant she was freed from Harvey he stood ready to become her husband—Fairfax, with all his money and all his power.
And that is precisely what she was aiming at. She could afford to smile, but somehow she 122 was coming to feel that this little man who was now her husband had it in him, after all, to put up a fierce and desperate fight for his own. If he were pushed to the wall he would fight back like a wildcat, and well she knew that there would be disagreeable features in the fray.
“If you are going to talk like that I’ll never speak to you again,” she said, banishing the smile. “Don’t you trust me?”
“Sure,” he said, and he meant it. “That’s not the point.”
“See here, Harve,” she said, abruptly putting her hands on his shoulders and looking squarely into his eyes, “I want you to believe me when I say that I am a—a—well, a good woman.”