She ended abruptly, beginning to flounder, panting so that the swift rise and fall of her breast was an outward token of inward emotion. Steve Packard stared and flushed hotly and began to feel his own anger mount quickly.
"Butt in on your affairs!" he snorted after a fashion more than vaguely reminiscent of his grandfather. "I like that! As if I'd have come a step without your invitation."
And so he blurted out the one thing he should have left unsaid, the thing which already rankled in Terry's proud heart. She had asked him to come; she had in a way suggested a—a sort of partnership.
"Oh! how I hate you!" cried Terry. "You—you Packard!"
"If there's some crime, some string of crimes that I have committed——"
"Will you tear up those papers? I'll get you back your money. Will you tear up those papers?"
"Will you explain what's gone wrong?"
"I will not."
He shrugged exasperatingly.
"I'll keep the papers," he returned stonily. "I put over rather a good deal to-night, come to think of it."