She looked at him open-mouthed. A moment intervened before she asked in perplexity:
"What? Half of what?"
"Half!" he answered, raising his voice. "Share and share alike!"
"Do you think I'm a fool?" she cried angrily, springing up. "A fool?"
"Half!" he insisted, pressing the point of his pencil obstinately into the table. "Of all he gives you—one half to me!"
"Oh, that's too absurd!" she cried with a clap of laughter.
"My dear Miss Morissey, sit down, sit down and listen," he said acridly. "We are to be partners, share alike or the game's off. Whatever you get, whatever money passes from his hands to yours, for whatever reason, for expenses or for pleasure, for carfare even, one half comes to me—to my account. Accept and I take all expenses. You leave here to-night and marry Fargus in two months. Otherwise I break you with a word, as easily as this."
He took a glass from the table, placed it without anger under his foot, and crushed it.
She came suddenly to him, tears of fear in her eyes, and placing her hand on his shoulder said: