body.

The automobile sped on, smoothly as though running on steel rails. A
brisk wind beat against the glass shield and was deflected, leaving only
light currents of air to brush the faces of the occupants of the car.
Between Ward and his sister a long silence ensued.

It was broken by the brother.

"Don't you understand the position we're in?" he inquired.

"I understand," she replied absently.

"And don't you care?"

"Nothing matters now, except Herbert."

For weeks the brother had dreaded the moment when he should be compelled
to confess the loss of their fortune. Now, finding that she took it
coolly, even indifferently, he decided to go through with it.

"But I haven't finished--you don't know all," he pursued desperately.
"The situation is aggravated by your resolve to leave your husband. All
his money, save the small income from the trust fund established by his
mother, is likewise sunk in the enterprise. I induced him to invest, I'm
really responsible for the predicament in which he'll find himself.
Don't you see," he added pleadingly, "if you leave him now it will take
on the aspect of desertion. People will say that your brother ruined him
and then you threw him over. While if you wait until after my marriage,
I shall be in a position to settle with him in full and still have
enough to look after you."

For several minutes she remained mute, evidently digesting his words.

"And would you marry without letting her know that you are ruined?" she
inquired in quivering tones. "Would you try to rehabilitate yourself
with her fortune? Do you think it fair?"

The words cut like saber thrusts. But when a man finds the walls of his
house about to fall on him he is apt to clutch blindly at anything which
promises to prop the tottering structure.

"It is cowardly, I confess," he said. "But what am I to do? Besides, I
love her. You know I would not marry without love, even to avert
financial ruin."

"I shall not interfere between you and your intended," she answered
icily. "Neither shall I permit the circumstances which you have
described to alter my determination."

The car now threaded its way through the maze of traffic in the city.
Presently it drew up before a huge, ugly factory that covered a square
block on the upper west side, near the river. Ward and his sister jumped
out of the tonneau and entered the building. They found themselves in a
busy office, consisting of a single room down the length