"You hold some bills of his--notes of hand, don't you call them?" she
pursued. "And they're due to be paid now, aren't they?"
"That is so. Well, what then?"
"Why, it wouldn't make much difference to you--would it,
Brett?"--appealingly--"if he didn't pay just yet--if you waited a little
longer?"
"I'm afraid I don't see with what object," he returned coldly.
Ann caught her lip between her teeth. Oh, how difficult men were when it
came to any question of money! How hard! Hardening all at once into cold
and implacable strangers.
"Why--why--" she said entreatingly. "Tony hasn't got the money to pay you
with just now, and if you'll only wait a little--give him a little time to
pay--Oh, Brett, won't you do it?"
"Wait for my money, you mean?"
"Yes."
"Do you think"--sardonically--"that I'm any more likely to get it at the
end of six months than I am at present? If Tony hasn't got twelve hundred
now--is he proposing to earn it in the next six months?"
The bitter, gibing note in his voice roused her anger.
"You'd no business to lend it him!" she exclaimed hotly. "He's only young,
and you were simply helping him, _encouraging_ him to gamble, when you know
as well as I do that gambling is absolutely in his blood.
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