“My dear,” she said, “I wonder if I may ask whether you are quite convinced that Harry is dead?”
She felt that the question was necessary, though it seemed rather a cruel one.
“No,” replied Agatha calmly, “I can’t quite bring myself to believe it.”
“Then, since you heard what Sproatly said, you would be willing to do anything that appeared possible to prevent Gregory throwing Harry’s money away?”
“Yes,” said Agatha, “I have been thinking about it.” A sparkle of disdainful anger showed in her eyes. “Gregory seems to have been acting shamefully.”
“Then as he won’t listen to Allen, we must get Sally to impress that fact on him.”
“Sally?” questioned Agatha in evident astonishment.
Mrs. Hastings smiled. “I don’t think you understand Sally as well as I do. Of course, like the rest of us, she falls a long way short of perfection, and—though it’s a difficult subject—there’s no doubt that her conduct in leading Gregory on while he was still engaged to you was hardly quite correct. After all, however, you owe her something for that.”
“It isn’t very hard to forgive her for it,” confessed Agatha.
“Well, I want you to understand Sally. Right or wrong, she’s fond of Gregory. Of course, I’ve told you this already, but I must try to make it clear how that fact bears upon the business in hand. Sally certainly fought for him, and there’s no doubt that one could find fault with several things she did; but the point is that she’s evidently determined on making the most of him now she has got him. In some respects, at least, she’s absolutely straight—one hundred cents to the dollar is what Allen says of her—and although you might perhaps not have expected this, I believe it would hurt her horribly to feel that Gregory was squandering money that didn’t strictly belong to him.”