Brett’s eyes narrowed again in sudden concentration.
“Your personal guarantee?”
“Yes, mine. If you’ll wait six months—or even three”—urgently. “Oh, Brett, you will wait?”
“‘Even three,’” he repeated thoughtfully. Suddenly he threw up his head and laughed. “I see it—it’s as clear as daylight! I believe”—smiling blandly—“you are proposing to marry Coventry next month. At least, I’m told that’s the programme. And I suppose you count on paying off Tony’s debt—with Coventry’s money. Is that it? What a charming arrangement!”
Ann felt her colour rise till her whole face and neck seemed scorching with the hot rush of blood.
“Whatever the arrangement would be, you may be sure it would be a perfectly fair one,” she said steadily. “Nor does it concern you so long as you get the money owing to you.”
“On the contrary, it would concern me very much to be paid off with Coventry’s money. I shouldn’t like it a bit. He’s got the woman I want—and he can keep his damn money!”
Sick as she felt under the insult of his manner, Ann forced herself into making yet another appeal.
“Brett, please be merciful! Put me outside the matter altogether. It isn’t a question of you and me. It’s Tony. And”—her voice breaking—“I want to save him.”
“I think it’s very much a question of you and me,” he retorted. “You asked me just now to extend the time of payment ‘as an act of personal friendship to you.’”