The simile actually occurred to him, and he resolved to precipitate matters by coming straightway to the landing-net.
"Is your friendship purchasable ?" he inquired, making the rush without further preamble.
"My wife was, I was led to believe," came the calm retort.
Grant threw scruples to the wind now.

Adelaide Mulhuish was being defamed, not by him, but by her husband.
"We are at cross purposes," he said, weighing each word.

"Your wife, who knew your character fairly well, I am convinced, thought that you were open to receive a cash consideration for your connivance in a divorce." "She had told me plainly that she would never live with me again.

I was too fair-minded a man to place obstacles in the way when she wished to regain her freedom." "So it was true, then.

What was the price?
One thousand--two?
I am not a millionaire." "Nor am I.As a mere matter of pounds, shillings, and pence, it was a serious matter for me when my wife's earnings ceased to come into the common stock." "My first, if rather vague, estimate of you was the correct one.