“What is it now?” he repeated, with a provoking smile. If he did not have power to stir her to love, he knew that he had the power to stir her to anger. “I was just recalling what you said a moment ago: to the effect that you were going to do what you pleased and do it when you pleased. Pardon me for smiling—but when a woman boasts, it sometimes is amusing and a bit absurd.”
“What do you mean?” she said sharply.
“Oh, I’m smiling at myself, too, for I’ve just realized what a fool I’ve made of myself in trying to stop you—an entirely unnecessary effort. What I mean, Miss Regan, is that I do not believe you could do it.”
“Why not?”
“Oh, I suppose you’d go through with your part of it. But if put to the test of marrying at once, Jack Morton would never go through with his part. He may be a bit infatuated; but he’s too wise to marry a woman without money—without knowing more about who she is—and without his father’s approval. No wonder Jack has been putting this off!”
She flushed hotly. “I have been the one to put it off!” she cried.
“Indeed,” he exclaimed with unbelief none too polite. “From the way he was dancing last night with Miss Cordova—you know, that pretty musical-comedy star—I have an idea she’s had a lot to do with the delay. And I imagine she’ll have a lot more to do with further delay. Why, you poor thing,”—he smiled irritatingly,—“to think you could hold a man like Jack Morton—you having to remain inactive, under cover—he free to roam about with all sorts of charming women—particularly with Miss Cordova!”
She did not speak for a moment. She was choked with that anger on which he had so carefully counted: no person, he knew, would be so likely to act upon impulse as a proud and angered woman, before the man who has insulted her.
“So you think I can’t do it!” she exclaimed. “So he’s the one who is holding back! Well, I’ll just show you! Anyhow, this thing might as well come to a head right now. And I’ll give you your chance to tell all you know about me.”
She turned and took up the telephone from the writing-desk and asked for the Biltmore. Fortune favored her purpose, for in a minute she had Jack Morton on the wire.