“It seems to me we're going through a lot of red tape,” she said spitefully.
Mary, from her chair at the desk, regarded the malcontent with a smile, but her tone was crisp as she answered.
“Listen, Agnes. The last time you tried to make a man give up part of his money it resulted in your going to prison for two years.”
Aggie sniffed, as if such an outcome were the merest bagatelle.
“But that way was so exciting,” she urged, not at all convinced.
“And this way is so safe,” Mary rejoined, sharply. “Besides, my dear, you would not get the money. My way will. Your way was blackmail; mine is not. Understand?”
“Oh, sure,” Aggie replied, grimly, on her way to the door. “It's clear as Pittsburgh.” With that sarcasm directed against legal subtleties, she tripped daintily out, an entirely ravishing vision, if somewhat garish as to raiment, and soon in the glances of admiration that every man cast on her guileless-seeming beauty, she forgot that she had ever been annoyed.
Garson's comment as she departed was uttered with his accustomed bluntness.
“Solid ivory!”
“She's a darling, anyway!” Mary declared, smiling. “You really don't half-appreciate her, Joe!”