“You were never satisfied from the first,” he retorted.  “You wanted money and position—­a mania with American women.  I’ve made a success that few men of my age can duplicate.  And even now you are not satisfied when I come back to tell you that I have money enough to snap my fingers at half these people you know.”

“How,” asked Honora, “how did you make it?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

She turned away from him with a gesture of weariness.

“No, you wouldn’t understand that, either, Howard.”

It was not until then that he showed feeling.

“Somebody has been talking to you about this deal.  I’m not surprised.  A lot of these people are angry because we didn’t let them in.  What have they been saying?” he demanded.

Her eyes flashed.

“Nobody has spoken to me on the subject,” she said.  “I only know what I have read, and what you have told me.  In the first place, you deceived the stockholders of these railways into believing their property was worthless, and in the second place, you intend to sell it to the public for much more than it is worth.”

At first he stared at her in surprise.  Then he laughed.

“By George, you’d make something of a financier yourself, Honora,” he exclaimed.  And seeing that she did not answer, continued:  “Well, you’ve got it about right, only it’s easier said than done.  It takes brains.  That’s what business is—­a survival of the fittest.  If you don’t do the other man, he’ll do you.”  He opened the cigarette case once more.  “And now,” he said, “let me give you a little piece of advice.  It’s a good motto for a woman not to meddle with what doesn’t concern her.  It isn’t her business to make the money, but to spend it; and she can usually do that to the queen’s taste.”

“A high ideal?” she exclaimed.

“You ought to have some notion of where that ideal came from,” he retorted.  “You were all for getting rich, in order to compete with these people.  Now you’ve got what you want—­”

“And I am going to throw it away.  That is like a woman, isn’t it?”

He glanced at her, and then at his watch.

“See here, Honora, I ought to go over to Mr. Wing’s.  I wired him I’d be there at four-thirty.”

“Don’t let me keep you,” she replied.

“By gad, you are pale!” he said.  “What’s got into the women these days?  They never used to have these confounded nerves.  Well, if you are bent on it, I suppose there’s no use trying to stop you.  Go off somewhere and take a rest, and when you come back you’ll see things differently.”

She held out her hand.

“Good-by, Howard,” she said.  “I wanted you to know that I didn’t—­bear you any ill-will—­that I blame myself as much as you.  More, if anything.  I hope you will be happy—­I know you will.  But I must ask you to believe me when I say that I shan’t come back.  I—­I am leaving all the valuable things you gave me.  You will find them on my dressing-table.  And I wanted to tell you that my uncle sent me a little legacy from my father-an unexpected one—­that makes me independent.”