“So glad to hear it,” said the old man with his most ironical air. “Suppose then you let me know what you’ve come down to say.”
“Can’t you guess?” she answered, with an expression that was almost one of flirtatious interrogation.
“Nup,” he answered, looking steadily at her. “I have to have it said in that plain style with no politeness that you say is the way we always talk.”
“All right,” she answered briskly. “Here it is as plain as A B C. I’ve decided to accept your offer and take the money.”
She looked up at him, smiling gallantly. But as her eye caught his her smile, try as she would to keep it, died. He suddenly realized that she was extremely nervous, that her lips were dry, and the hand she put up to adjust her veil, and thus hide her intractable mouth, was shaking. The admiration he had of late felt for her insolent fearlessness increased, also he began to feel that now, at last, he was rising to the position of master of the situation. He leaned back in the swivel chair and glowered at her.
“You know,” he said slowly, “you’ve a gall that beats anything I’ve ever seen. Two days ago you busted this business higher than a kite by stopping my daughter on the public street and telling her the whole story. You did the one thing you knew I’d never forgive; and you ended the affair, hammered the nails in its coffin and buried it. Now you come flourishing into my office as if nothing had happened and say you’ll take the money. It beats me how you’ve got the nerve to dare to show your face in here.”
Berny listened with the hand holding the veil pressed against her mouth and her eyes staring over it.
“It’s all straight enough,” she burst out, “what you say about telling your daughter. I did it and I was crazy. I’ll admit that. But you’ll have to admit on your side that it was pretty rough the way I was treated here, ordered out like a peddler. I was sore, and it was you that made me so. And I’ll not deny that I wanted to hit you back. But you brought it on yourself. And, anyway, what does it matter if I go? Maybe your daughter’s mad and disgusted now, but women don’t stay that way for ever. If I get out, drop out of sight, the way I intend to do, give Dominick his freedom, isn’t she going to forget all about what I said? Wouldn’t any woman?”
The Bonanza King made no answer. He had no intention of talking with this objectionable woman about his daughter. But in his heart hope sprang at the words. They were an echo of his own desires and opinions. If this woman took the money and went, would not Rose, in the course of time, relent in her attitude of iron disapproval, and smile on the man she loved? Could any woman hold out for ever in such a position?
“See here,” Berny went on, “I’ll leave a statement. I’ll put it in your hands that I changed my mind and voluntarily left. I’ll draw it up before a notary if you want. And it’s true. She needn’t think that I’m being forced out to make a place for her. I’m glad to go.”