chair, dropping one knee
over the other. Her dark eyes with the Japanese slant to them rested
mockingly on Plank, who had now turned completely around in his chair,
leaving his half-written cheque on her escritoire behind him.

"You're simply credited with an affair with a pretty woman," she said,
watching the dull colour mounting to his temples, "and that is certain
to be useful to you, and it doesn't affect me. What on earth are you
blushing about?" And as he said nothing, she added, with a daring little
laugh: "You are credited with being very agreeable, you see."

"If--if that's the way you take it--" he began.

"Of course! What do you expect me to do--call for help before I'm hurt?"

"You mean that this talk--gossip--doesn't hurt?"

"How silly!" She looked at him, smiling. "You know how likely I am to
require protection from your importunities." She dropped her pretty
head, and began plaiting with her fingers the silken gown over her knee.
"Or how likely I would be to shriek for it even if"--she looked up with
childlike directness--"even if I needed it."

"Of course you can take care of yourself," said Plank, wincing.

"I could, if I wanted to."

"Everybody knows that. I know it, Leroy knows it; only I don't care to
figure as that kind of man."

Already he had lost sight of her position in the matter; and she drew a
long, quiet breath, almost like a sigh.

"Time enough after you marry," she said deliberately, and lighted a
cigarette from a candle, recreating her knees the other way.

He considered her, started to speak, checked himself, and swung around
to the desk again. His pen hovered over the space to be filled in. He
tried to recollect the amount, hesitated, dated the cheque and affixed
his signature, still trying to remember; then he looked at her over his
shoulder.

"I forget the exact amount."

She surveyed him through the haze of her cigarette, but made no answer.

"I forget the amount," he repeated.

"So do I," she nodded indolently.

"But I--"

"Let it go. Besides, I shall not accept it."

He flushed up, astonished. "You can't refuse to take a gambling debt."

"I do," she retorted coolly. "I'm tired of taking your money."

"But you won it."

"I'm tired of winning it. It is all I ever do win ... from you."

Her pretty head was wreathed in smoke. She tipped the ashes from the
cigarette's end, watching them fall to powder on the rug.

"I don't know what you mean," he persisted d