“I thought you would, Mr. Irwin,” Mary returned, and now she smiled in a kindly manner, which, nevertheless, gave no pleasure to the chagrined man before her. As he rose, she went on crisply: “If you'll take the money to Mr. Harris, Miss Lynch will meet you in his office at four o'clock this afternoon, and, when her suit for damages for breach of promise has been legally settled out of court, you will get the letters.... Good-afternoon, Mr. Irwin.”
The lawyer made a hurried bow which took in both of the women, and walked quickly toward the door. But he was arrested before he reached it by the voice of Mary, speaking again, still in that imperturbable evenness which so rasped his nerves, for all its mellow resonance. But this time there was a sting, of the sharpest, in the words themselves.
“Oh, you forgot your marked money, Mr. Irwin,” Mary said.
The lawyer wheeled, and stood staring at the speaker with a certain sheepishness of expression that bore witness to the completeness of his discomfiture. Without a word, after a long moment in which he perceived intently the delicate, yet subtly energetic, loveliness of this slender woman, he walked back to the desk, picked up the money, and restored it to the bill-case. This done, at last he spoke, with a new respect in his voice, a quizzical smile on his rather thin lips.
“Young woman,” he said emphatically, “you ought to have been a lawyer.” And with that laudatory confession of her skill, he finally took his departure, while Mary smiled in a triumph she was at no pains to conceal, and Aggie sat gaping astonishment over the surprising turn of events.
It was the latter volatile person who ended the silence that followed on the lawyer's going.
“You've darn near broke my heart,” she cried, bouncing up violently, “letting all that money go out of the house.... Say, how did you know it was marked?”
“I didn't,” Mary replied, blandly; “but it was a pretty good guess, wasn't it? Couldn't you see that all he wanted was to get the letters, and have us take the marked money? Then, my simple young friend, we would have been arrested very neatly indeed—for blackmail.”
Aggie's innocent eyes rounded in an amazed consternation, which was not at all assumed.
“Gee!” she cried. “That would have been fierce! And now?” she questioned, apprehensively.