We did
Wingrave a service in introducing him to society here, and I am sure
that he appreciated it. If he wished for our ruin, why did he lend us
eight thousand pounds on no security? Why does he lend us his yacht to
entertain our friends? Why did he give me that information which
enabled me to make the only money I ever did make on the Stock
Exchange?"
She smiled contemptuously.
"You do not understand a man like Wingrave," she declared. "Nothing
that he has done is inconsistent with my point of view. He gave you a
safe tip, knowing very well that when you had won a little, you would
try again on your own account and lose--which you did. He lent us the
money to become our creditor; and he lends us the yacht to give
another handle to the people who are saying already that he occupies
the position in our family which is more fully recognized on the other
side of the Channel!"
"You are talking rubbish," he declared vehemently. "No one would dare
to say such a thing of you--of my wife!"
She laughed unmercifully.
"If you were not my husband," she said cruelly, "you would have heard
it before now. I have been careful all my life--more careful than most
women, but I can hear the whisperings already. There are more ways to
ruin than one, Lumley."
"We will refuse the yacht," Barrington said sullenly, "and I will go
to the Jews for that eight thousand pounds."
"We will do nothing of the sort," Lady Ruth answered.
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