wanted Quarrier in the family; he
needed Quarrier in his business. ... But, faugh! that was close enough
to blackmail to rub off! ... No! ... No! He wouldn't go to Belwether and
promise any such thing! ... On the contrary, he felt it his duty to
inform Quarrier! Quarrier had a right to know what sort of a girl he
was threatened with for life! ... A man ought not to let another man go
blindly into such a marriage. ... Men owed each other something, even
if they were not particularly close friends. ... And he had always had
a respect for Quarrier, even a sort of liking for him--yes, a distinct
liking! ... And, anyhow, women were devils! and it behooved men to get
together and stand for one another!

Quarrier would give her her walking papers damned quick! ... And, in her
humiliation, is there anybody mad enough to fancy that she wouldn't snap
up Plank in such a fix? ... And make it look like a jilt for Quarrier? ...
But Plank must do his part on the minute; Plank must step up in the very
nick of time; Plank, with his millions and his ambitions, was bound to
be a winner anyway, and Sylvia might as well be his pilot and use his
money. ... And Plank would be very, very grateful--very useful, a very
good friend to have. ... And Leila would learn at last that he, Mortimer,
had cut his wisdom teeth, by God!

As for Siward, he amounted to nothing; probably was one of that
contemptible sort of men who butted in and kissed a pretty girl when he
had the chance. He, Mortimer, had only disgust for such amateurs of
the social by-ways; for he himself kept to the highways, like any
self-respecting professional, even when a tour of the highways sometimes
carried him below stairs. There was no romantic shilly-shallying
fol-de-rol about him. Women learned what to expect from him in short
order. En garde, Madame!--ou Mademoiselle--tant pis!

He laughed to himself and rolled over, digging his head into the pillows
and stretching his fat hands to ease their congestion. And most of
all he amused himself with figuring out the exact degree of his wife's
astonishment and chagrin when, without consulting her, he achieved the
triumph of Quarrier's elimination and the theatrical entry of Beverly
Plank upon the stage. He laughed when he thought of Major Belwether,
too, confounded under the loss of such a nephew-in-law, humiliated,
crushed, all his misleading jocularity, all his sleek pink-and-white
suavity, all his humbugging bonhomie knocked out o