Page:Roy Norton--The unknown Mr Kent.djvu/140

 and sisters. Anyway, it's going to be a lot easier for me to—to get John Rhodes' money—" she could scarcely account for the strange sarcasm in his tone "and incidentally to help your brother, if we act as friends. Come, will you not act as our ally in this troublesome undertaking?"

She was strangely and unreasonably moved by his appeal; for appeal it was, his mellow voice hastening to his will, and his thoughtful, searching eyes fixing themselves questioningly upon her face.

"Unity of action is necessary to success," he added, while she stood before him, waiting for him to stand aside.

For quite a time they confronted each other, he with his hand outstretched, as if inviting her compact, and then slowly his look shifted and lost all its warmth, and veiled itself, and his lips straightened to a harsh, obdurate line. He bowed and stepped to one side, beckoning with unconscious grace toward the open door. She knew that he was wounded by her refusal, and she was no longer aggressive. She fought an impulse to put her hand in his and become, after this relinquishment, his faithful partner in the enterprise; but that meant, she knew, that she must become, as her brother threatened to become, his subordinate, a position against which, by training and heredity, she rebelled. Without looking back, neither [136]