The light went out of her face. He wondered whimsically if he had locked
it in with the ruby, and once more he was conscious that something
intangible floated between them. But she looked at him squarely with her
shadowed eyes.
"Oh, one could spend any amount, of course, but I really have
quite enough."
"You shall have double your present allowance when these cursed times
improve. And I have always intended to settle a couple of hundred
thousand on you--a quarter of a million--as soon as I could realize
without loss on certain investments. But one day I want you to be quite
independent."
Her eyes had opened very wide. "A quarter of a million? And it would be
all my own? I could do anything with it I liked?"
"Well--I think I should put it in trust. I haven't much faith in the
resistance of your sex to tempting investments promising a high rate of
interest."
"I have heard you say that when rich men die the amount of worthless
stock found in their safe deposit boxes passes belief."
"Quite true. But that is hardly an argument in favor of trusting an even
more inexperienced sex with large sums of money."
She laughed, but less naturally than when he had been seized with an
unwonted spasm of jealousy. "You will always get the best of me in an
argument," she said with her exquisite politeness. "Really, I think I
love being wholly dependent upon you. Here comes your detective. What
a bore. But at least we lunch together if we do have company. And
thank you, thank you a thousand times for promising I shall wear the
ruby at last."
She slipped her hand into his for a second, then left the room, smiling
over her shoulder, as the locally celebrated "Jake" Spaulding entered.
Both Ruyler and his general manager had thought it best to have their
cashier watched. There were rumors of gambling and other road house
diversions, and they proposed to save their man to the firm, if possible;
if not, to discharge him before he followed the usual course and involved
Ruyler and Sons in the loss of thousands they could ill afford to spare.