“Mary, it’s no use—keep out of this!” cried little Loveman. He took her arm to draw her away, but she shook him off.
“I’m going to do exactly what I said I’d do. Come on, Jack.”
“No, you’re not!” Nina cried, suddenly sharp and venomous, leaning farther across the table. “You just try to start anything like that and I’ll tell the Mortons who you really are—Miss Mary Regan!”
Hilton, finished gentleman of hotel, café, and ballroom, had moved around the table to her side. “And start anything, and I’ll tell what I know,” he said in a hard voice, his hands twitching. “And it’ll be something besides what Miss Cordova will tell. I believe you get me, Mrs. Mary Regan Grayson!”
“And we won’t put off telling till to-morrow!” cried Nina Cordova. She moved quickly to a little wall telephone, tinted in gray-and-gold to match the room, and took down the receiver.
“Give me the Biltmore.... The Biltmore? Connect me with Mr. Morton.... Mr. Morton, this is Miss Cordova. Will you please hold the wire a moment.”
She muffled the mouthpiece with a palm and turned upon Mary. “Get out of this—or your finish will come in just one second!”
Clifford’s eyes, taking in all, were centered on Mary, who was gazing at all these faces bent upon her in menace. He saw that her impulses had come to a sudden halt; that she realized that these persons could, and would, do exactly what they threatened; that their telling would mean an immediate end to the ambitious plans for which she had schemed and worked and waited so hard.
There was silence in the little cabinet particulier; all the figures, save Jack’s, stood in tense tableau—waiting. Clifford, looking through the aperture of the door, recognized that this was a climax in Mary Regan’s life. Events, with some guidance from him had arranged a supreme test. The next instant would prove something—what? He was as taut as those within.
Mary, with slow calm, drew a deep breath; her figure stiffened. “Mr. Hilton, Miss Cordova,” she said steadily, slowly, her eyes not leaving them, “you may tell everything you like. I am going to take Jack away from here.”