I'm used to it. What does your father
say?'

'He says that when a man is attacked as you are, it's his duty to
defend himself.'

'Oh, he does, does he?'

Lady Maud smiled, but shook her head in a reproachful way.

'You promised me that you would never give me your business answer,
you know!'

'I'm sorry,' said Mr. Van Torp, in a tone of contrition. 'Well, you
see, I forgot you weren't a man. I won't do it again. So your father
thinks I'd better come out flat-footed with a statement to the press.
Now, I'll tell you. I'd do so, if I didn't feel sure that all this
circus about me isn't the real thing yet. It's been got up with an
object, and until I can make out what's coming I think I'd best keep
still. Whoever's at the root of this is counting on my losing my
temper and hitting out, and saying things, and then the real attack
will come from an unexpected quarter. Do you see that? Under the
circumstances, almost any man in my position would get interviewed and
talk back, wouldn't he?'

'I fancy so,' answered Lady Maud.

'Exactly. If I did that, I might be raising against another man's
straight flush, don't you see? A good way in a fight is never to do
what everybody else would do. But I've got a scheme for getting behind
the other man, whoever he is, and I've almost concluded to try it.'

'Will you tell me what it is?'

'Don't I always tell you most things?'

Lady Maud smiled at the reservation implied in 'most.'

'After all you have done for me, I should have no right to complain if
you never told me anything,' she answered. 'Do as you think best. You
know that I trust you.'

'That's right, and I appreciate it,' answered the millionaire. 'In
the first place, you're not going to be divorced. I suppose that's
settled.'

Lady Maud opened her clear eyes in surprise.

'You didn't know that, did you?' asked Mr. Van Torp, enjoying her
astonishment.

'Certainly not, and I can hardly believe it,' she answered.

'Look here, Maud,' said her companion, bending his heavy brows in a
way very unusual with him, 'do you seriously think I'd let you be
divorced on my account? That I'd allow any human being to play tricks
with your good name by coupling it with mine in any sort of way? If
I were the kind of man about whom you had a right to think that, I
wouldn't deserve your friendship.'

It was not often that Rufus Van Torp allowed his face to show feeling,
but the look she saw in his rough-hewn features for a mom