第35章 MARKED MONEY(3)

"Oh, I see," he said disagreeably, with a frown to indicate his complete sagacity in the premises.

"I thought you would, Mr.Irwin," Mary returned, and now she smiled in a kindly manner, which, nevertheless, gave no pleasure to the chagrined man before her.As he rose, she went on crisply: "If you'll take the money to Mr.Harris, Miss Lynch will meet you in his office at four o'clock this afternoon, and, when her suit for damages for breach of promise has been legally settled out of court, you will get the letters....

Good-afternoon, Mr.Irwin."

The lawyer made a hurried bow which took in both of the women, and walked quickly toward the door.But he was arrested before he reached it by the voice of Mary, speaking again, still in that imperturbable evenness which so rasped his nerves, for all its mellow resonance.But this time there was a sting, of the sharpest, in the words themselves.

"Oh, you forgot your marked money, Mr.Irwin," Mary said.

The lawyer wheeled, and stood staring at the speaker with a certain sheepishness of expression that bore witness to the completeness of his discomfiture.Without a word, after a long moment in which he perceived intently the delicate, yet subtly energetic, loveliness of this slender woman, he walked back to the desk, picked up the money, and restored it to the bill-case.

This done, at last he spoke, with a new respect in his voice, a quizzical smile on his rather thin lips.

"Young woman," he said emphatically, "you ought to have been a lawyer." And with that laudatory confession of her skill, he finally took his departure, while Mary smiled in a triumph she was at no pains to conceal, and Aggie sat gaping astonishment over the surprising turn of events.

It was the latter volatile person who ended the silence that followed on the lawyer's going.

"You've darn near broke my heart," she cried, bouncing up violently, "letting all that money go out of the house....Say, how did you know it was marked?""I didn't," Mary replied, blandly; "but it was a pretty good guess, wasn't it? Couldn't you see that all he wanted was to get the letters, and have us take the marked money? Then, my simple young friend, we would have been arrested very neatly indeed--for blackmail."Aggie's innocent eyes rounded in an amazed consternation, which was not at all assumed.

"Gee!" she cried."That would have been fierce! And now?" she questioned, apprehensively.

Mary's answer repudiated any possibility of fear.

"And now," she explained contentedly, "he really will go to our lawyer.There, he will pay over that same marked money.Then, he will get the letters he wants so much.And, just because it's a strictly business transaction between two lawyers, with everything done according to legal ethics----""What's legal ethics?" Aggie demanded, impetuously."They sound some tasty!" With the comment, she dropped weakly into a chair.

Mary laughed in care-free enjoyment, as well she might after winning the victory in such a battle of wits.

"Oh," she said, happily, "you just get it legally, and you get twice as much!""And it's actually the same old game!" Aggie mused.She was doing her best to get a clear understanding of the matter, though to her it was all a mystery most esoteric.

Mary reviewed the case succinctly for the other's enlightenment.

"Yes, it's the same game precisely," she affirmed."A shameless old roue makes love to you, and he writes you a stack of silly letters."The pouting lips of the listener took on a pathetic droop, and her voice quivered as she spoke with an effective semblance of virginal terror.

"He might have ruined my life!"

Mary continued without giving much attention to these histrionics.

"If you had asked him for all this money for the return of his letters, it would have been blackmail, and we'd have gone to jail in all human probability.But we did no such thing--no, indeed!

What we did wasn't anything like that in the eyes of the law.

What we did was merely to have your lawyer take steps toward a suit for damages for breach of promise of marriage for the sum of ten thousand dollars.Then, his lawyer appears in behalf of General Hastings, and there follow a number of conferences between the legal representatives of the opposing parties.By means of these conferences, the two legal gentlemen run up very respectable bills of expenses.In the end, we get our ten thousand dollars, and the flighty old General gets back his letters....My dear," Mary concluded vaingloriously, "we're inside the law, and so we're perfectly safe.And there you are!"