"What security? On the security of my property."
"Your property?" Mr. Luker did not smile--a smile was probably another thing of which he was incapable--but his wizened features assumed a curious aspect. "Of what does your property consist?"
"None of your nonsense. To begin with, there are those ten thousand shares in the Hardwood Company. As you know very well, they're worth over fifty thousand pounds at the present moment."
"They would be if you had them--but you haven't."
"McTavish & Brown have got them, and you're going to make them disgorge."
"We've first of all to prove that they've got them."
"Oh no, we haven't; they have to prove that they handed them over to Cuthbert Grahame, which is a very different thing, as you know very well."
"My dear Isabel, you're a very clever woman; your fault is that, if anything, you're too clever."
"I've heard you called too clever before to-day."
"My dear----"