as only the day before that
I'd met you by the old ford of the Sagalac, and made up to you. You
choked me off as though I was a wolf or a devil on the loose. The next
day when I saw Ingolby hand you out to the crowd from his arms, I got
nasty--I have fits like that sometimes, when I've had a little too much
liquor. I felt it more because you're the only kind of woman that could
ever get a real hold on me. It was you made me get the boys rampaging
and set the toughs moving. As you say, I can get hold of a crowd. It's
not hard--with money and drink. You can buy human nature cheap. Every
man has his price they say--and every woman too--bien sur! The thing
is to find out what is the price, and then how to buy. You can't buy
everyone in the same way, even if you use a different price. You've got
to find out how they want the price--whether it's to be handed over the
counter, so to speak, or to be kept on the window-sill, or left in a
pocket, or dropped in a path, or dug up like a potato, with a funny
make-believe that fools nobody, but just plays to the hypocrite in
everyone everywhere. I'm saying this to you because you've seen more of
the world, I bet, than one in a million, even though you're so young. I
don't see why we can't come together. I'm to be bought. I don't say
that my price isn't high. You've got your price, too. You wouldn't
fuss yourself about things here in Manitou and Lebanon, if there wasn't
something you wanted to get. Tout ca! Well, isn't it worth while making
the bargain? You've got such gift of speech that I'm just as if I'd
been drugged, and all round, face, figure, eyes, hair, foot, and girdle,
you're worth giving up a lot for. I've seen plenty of your sex, and I've
heard crowds of them talk, but they never had anything for me beyond the
minute. You've got the real thing. You're my fancy. You've been thinking
and dreaming of Ingolby. He's done. He's a back number. There's nothing
he's done that isn't on the tumble since last night. The financial gang
that he downed are out already against him. They'll have his economic
blood. He made a splash while he was at it, but the alligator's got him.
It's 'Exit Ingolby,' now."

She made a passionate gesture, and seemed about to speak, but he went
on: "No, don't say anything. I know how you feel. You've had your face
turned his way, and you can't look elsewhere all at once. But Time cures
quick, if you're a good healthy human being. Ingolby was the kind likely