"As I said before, Mr. Hornblower," Justin assured him with an air of
gentle consideration, "I am not at all desirous of hurrying you in the
matter. If you prefer to think over what I have said, and then when
you reach a decision--"

"I don't see," exclaimed Mrs. Hornblower, from her seat near the
window, "why it shouldn't be settled to-day. We've got a good offer
for the farm now, but if Robert keeps Mr. Jeffreys hanging by the
gills, the chances are that he'll satisfy himself somewhere else. And
it isn't as though we hadn't talked this over from A to izzard."

"You've got to make up your mind sometimes," Persis Dale corroborated
her. "I always feel as if 'twas a relief to get a thing settled."

Mrs. Hornblower who up to this moment had seemed to regard Persis'
presence as an affront, smiled upon her almost affectionately. Robert
Hornblower had an air of feeling himself deserted. Justin was not sure.

"But before you get the thing all settled and signed," Persis continued
smoothly, "there's one little thing I'd like to have Mr. Ware explain.
If, this investment is such a good thing for you, why isn't it just as
good for me?"

A tense silence followed which Mrs. Hornblower broke. "For you?" She
pushed her spectacles up on her forehead as if she found the lenses an
obstruction to vision rather than an aid. "Have you--have you been
thinking of putting any money into apples?"

"I asked him last night about investing ten thousand dollars in this
company. He talked against it--strong. He gave me to understand that
if I was getting ten per cent. on my money I was lucky."

Justin sat with his eyes on the floor, making no effort to explain. It
was checkmate, and he knew it. The love of his youth had played with
him, tricked him, used him for her purposes even while he believed her
on the point of capitulation. It was small consolation at that moment
to realize that greater men had lost greater stakes through that little
illusion of being irresistible to the sex. He turned sick with
humiliation, hot with hate. He had prided himself on his
sophistication, and this country woman had laid a trap for him into
which he had obligingly blundered. To attempt an explanation would be
folly. Checkmate!

"Ten per cent.!" Mrs. Hornblower's voice rose shrill and frightened.
"Why, in the Apple of Eden Investment Company--"

"Yes, I reminded him about the twenty-five per cent. by the tenth year,
and he laughed at me