byn?

PIKE [humbly]. No.

ETHEL. And you remember, it is the testimony offered by your own friend
[scornfully]--by your own detective!

PIKE [ruefully]. Oh, if I wanted a detective I wouldn't get Jim
Cooley--at least, not any _more_!

[His attitude is thoroughly crestfallen.]

ETHEL [triumphantly, almost graciously]. I shall tell Lord Hawcastle
that you will be ready to take up the matter of the settlement the
moment his solicitor arrives.

PIKE. No, I wouldn't do that.

ETHEL [in a challenging voice]. Why not?

PIKE [doggedly]. Because I won't take up the matter of settlements with
him or any one else.

ETHEL [angrily]. Do you mean you cannot see what a humiliation your
interference has brought upon you in this?

PIKE. No; I see that plain enough.

ETHEL. Have you, after this, any further objections to my alliance with
Mr. St. Aubyn?

PIKE. It ain't an alliance with Mr. St. Aubyn that you're after.

ETHEL. Then what am I [pauses and lays scornful emphasis on the next
word] _after_?

[Illustration: "YOU'RE AFTER SOMETHING THERE ISN'T ANYTHING TO"]

PIKE [slowly]. You're after something there isn't anything to. If I'd
let you buy what you want to with your money and your whole life, you'd
find it as empty as the morning after Judgment Day.

[She turns from him, smiling and superior.]

You think because I'm a jay country lawyer I don't understand it and
couldn't understand _you_! Why, we've got just the same thing at home.
There was little Annie Hoffmeyer. Her pa was a carpenter and doing well.
But Annie couldn't get into the Kokomo Ladies' Literary Club, and her
name didn't show up in the society column four or five times every
Saturday morning, so she got her pa to give her the money to marry Artie
Seymour, the minister's son--and a _regular_ minister's son he was!
Almost broke Hoffmeyer's heart, but he let her have her way and went in
debt and bought them a little house on North Main Street. That was two
years ago. Annie's workin' at the depoe candy-stand now and Artie's
workin' at the hotel bar--in front--drinking up what's left of old
Hoffmeyer's--settlement!

ETHEL [outraged]. And you say you understand--you who couple the name of
a tippling yokel with that of a St. Aubyn--a gentleman of distinction.

PIKE. Distinction? I didn't know he was distinguished.

ETHEL [in a ringing voice]. His ancestors have fought with glory on
every field of battle from Crecy and Agincourt to the Crimea.

PIK