"But I have some knowledge of your ways of trading.

They are overshrewd for an honest gentleman." "You mean," she gasped, her hand pressed to her heart, her face a deathly white, "you mean that you'll not save him ?" "I mean," said he, "that I will have no further bargains with you." There was such hard finality in his tone that she recoiled, beaten and without power, to return to the assault.

She had played and lost.

She had yielded her lips to his kisses, and--husband though he might be in name--shame was her only guerdon.
One look she gave him from out of that face so white and pitiful, then with a shudder turned from him and fled his presence.

He sprang after her as the door closed, then checked and stood in thought, very grim for one who professed to bestow no seriousness on the affairs of life.