"Money?" demanded Andrew.
"Of course! And you may thank your stars that you're in a position to command it. Many a chap has gone under because he couldn't pay the piper when the bill came in. You can; and there's no reason under heaven why you should let this matter trouble you. Wait a moment!"—as Andrew was about to speak—"let me explain. I'm not the sort that cuts into other people's affairs as a rule. I detest meddling, and ordinarily I don't want to be bothered with what doesn't concern me. But I like you, Vane—I do, heartily. I'd be more sorry than a little to see you in trouble. What's more, I feel to a certain extent responsible, as I was the one to introduce you. Well, then—suppose you leave the whole affair to me. I know the world, and especially Paris, and more especially Mirabelle Tremonceau. Leave it in my hands. Even if she's ugly about it, I can probably get you out, all clear, for fifteen or twenty thousand francs, where it might cost you fifty if you undertook to engineer the thing yourself. What do you say?"
"Say?" repeated Andrew, with a little, mirthless laugh, "why, simply that you don't understand. Mirabelle wouldn't accept money from me."
"Oh, not money, like that," said Radwalader, "not money out of a purse—'one, two, three, and two make five. I think that's correct, madam, and thank you!' No, I grant you—probably she wouldn't. But a Panhard, or a deposit at her bankers', or diamonds—that would be different."
"No—no," said Andrew, shaking a single finger from side to side. "You're all wrong. You don't get the situation at all. When a woman loves a man—"
"Love?" broke in Radwalader. "Piffle! Leave it to me, my dear sir, and in twenty-four hours I'll prove to you that Mirabelle Tremonceau's spelling of the word 'love' begins with the symbol for pounds sterling!"
"And Margery?" faltered Andrew.
"I saw Miss Palffy at Poissy," said Radwalader. "She's still staying there, you know. Now, if you'd told me that she loved you, I'd have believed you. She was looking wretchedly, I thought."
He paused for a moment, to give the words their proper effect, and then played his highest card.