“Oh, no, you won't,” replied Hilda decidedly. “You are going down town right now and get something to put on. Then you are coming back here to stay.”
Thorpe glanced in surprise at his driver's clothes, and his spiked boots.
“Heavens and earth!” he exclaimed, “I should think so! How am I to get out without ruining the floor?”
Hilda laughed and drew aside the portiere.
“Don't you think you have done that pretty well already?” she asked. “There, don't look so solemn. We're not going to be sorry for a single thing we've done today, are we?” She stood close to him holding the lapels of his jacket in either hand, searching his face wistfully with her fathomless dusky eyes.
“No, sweetheart, we are not,” replied Thorpe soberly.
Chapter LIX
Surely it is useless to follow the sequel in detail, to tell how Hilda persuaded Thorpe to take her money. She aroused skillfully his fighting blood, induced him to use one fortune to rescue another. To a woman such as she this was not a very difficult task in the long run. A few scruples of pride; that was all.
“Do not consider its being mine,” she answered to his objections. “Remember the lesson we learned so bitterly. Nothing can be greater than love, not even our poor ideals. You have my love; do not disappoint me by refusing so little a thing as my money.”