"Let's see," he insisted, passing her the paper and pencil. She wrote her name and his in a free, regular hand.
"Very good," he nodded, scanning her signature. "Now just a moment."
He wrote with pains, while she waited in perplexity, until at length, with a glance of satisfaction, he returned the page to his pocket, stiffened in his chair and said drily:
"Now, if you please, we'll talk business!"
CHAPTER VII THE COMPACT
Sheila looked at him in astonishment. A world intervened between the two attitudes. The man she had fathomed and did not fear had given place to something hard, impassive, and mechanical. She saw she had marched into a trap and the perspiration rose cold between her shoulders as she moved uneasily, seeking with a smile to regain the man from the lawyer.
"Come, it isn't so bad as that!" she said with a moue. "You see how I am fixed. What do you ask?"
"Half!"