'My dear Letty, do you think I like it? If it weren't for circumstances I'd let the ruby and the fortune go together. Listen, the decision shall be in your hands. Shall I try to fulfil the old man's preposterous and malignant condition? or shall I throw the whole thing up at once, let the money go to Horace Burton, return to Africa, and keep on pounding away in the hope of making enough to win you in the end? Now, which is it to be? You shall say.'
'It's not fair to place the entire responsibility upon my shoulders.'
'Since this is a matter in which you are primarily interested, my one desire is that your views should be treated with the utmost possible deference.'
'Then get the ruby.'
'But how?'
'Tear it from her if you like; knock her down and steal it; I don't care. Only don't make love to her under the pretence of doing me a service. Guy, if you're even civil to her--'
She left the sentence unfinished; the air with which she spoke was eloquent enough.
'My dear Letty, as if I should! Then do you suggest that I should go and see her?'
'Of course. To-night.'
'To-night?'