Page:Caroline Lockhart--The Fighting Shepherdess.djvu/146

 "You can't keep it."

"But, Jap—"

"I say you can't keep it."

"But, Jap—" she whimpered.

"Do you think I want to be under obligations to that—"

She put her hand over his mouth.

"You shan't say it! She's been generous. She kept her promise when neither you nor I would have done it, and I'm going to stand by her."

"You'll do nothing of the kind!" savagely.

"Now listen, Jap," she went on pleadingly. "We need this so terribly—we're in no position to consider our feelings—we can pay it back the minute you get into something. I don't understand why you feel so strongly about her, but since you do, I respect you for not wanting to take it. However, the loan isn't to you, it's to me; it's a business proposition, and when we return it we'll pay interest."

He was listening sullenly and she read in his wavering look that he was weakening.

"You must be sensible, Jap. Be reasonable, for we haven't a dollar, and look—here are five hundred of them! We simply can't refuse."

She saw the greedy glint in his eyes as she held the money toward him, and knew that the battle was over.

"I'll not have anything to do with it, anyway."

She could have smiled at his continued pretence of reluctance, his fictitious dignity, if it had not saddened her. As she returned the money to the bureau drawer and slowly closed it she was conscious that in her heart she would have been glad and proud if he had not yielded.