He was silent a long time.She knew she had convinced him that her terms were final.So, his delay could only mean that he was debating whether to accept or to go his way and leave her to go hers.At last he laughed and said:
"You've become a true New Yorker.You know how to drive a hard bargain." He looked at her admiringly."You certainly have got courage.I happen to know a lot about your affairs.
I've ways of finding out things.And I know you'd not be here if you hadn't broken with the other fellow first.So, if Iturned your proposition down you'd be up against it--wouldn't you?""Yes," said she."But--I won't in any circumstances tie myself.I must be free.""You're right," said he."And I'll risk your sticking.I'm a good gambler.""If I were bound, but didn't want to stay, would I be of much use?""Of no use.You can quit on seven minutes' notice, instead of seven days.""And you, also," said she.
Laughingly they shook hands.She began to like him in a new and more promising way.Here was a man, who at least was cast in a big mold.Nothing small and cheap about him--and Brent had made small cheap men forever intolerable to her.Yes, here was a man of the big sort; and a big man couldn't possibly be a bad man.No matter how many bad things he might do, he would still be himself, at least, a scorner of the pettiness and sneakiness and cowardice inseparable from villainy.
"And now," said he, "let's settle the last detail.How much a week? How would five hundred strike you?""That's more than twelve times the largest salary I ever got.
It's many times as much as I made in the----""No matter," he hastily interposed."It's the least you can hold down the job on.You've got to spend money--for clothes and so on.""Two hundred is the most I can take," said she."It's the outside limit."He insisted, but she remained firm."I will not accustom myself to much more than I see any prospect of getting elsewhere," explained she."Perhaps later on I'll ask for an increase--later on, when I see how things are going and what my prospects elsewhere would be.But I must begin modestly.""Well, let it go at two hundred for the present.I'll deposit a year's salary in a bank, and you can draw against it.Is that satisfactory? You don't want me to hand you two hundred dollars every Saturday, do you?""No.That would get on my nerves," said she.
"Now--it's all settled.When shall we sail?""There's a girl I've got to look up before I go.""Maud? You needn't bother about her.She's married to a piker from up the state--a shoe manufacturer.She's got a baby, and is fat enough to make two or three like what she used to be.""No, not Maud.One you don't know."
"I hoped we could sail tomorrow.Why not take a taxi and go after her now?""It may be a long search."
"She's a----?" He did not need to finish his sentence in order to make himself understood.
Susan nodded.
"Oh, let her----"
"I promised," interrupted she.
"Then--of course." Freddie drew from his trousers pocket a huge roll of bills.Susan smiled at this proof that he still retained the universal habit of gamblers, politicians and similar loose characters of large income, precariously derived.He counted off three hundreds and four fifties and held them out to her."Let me in on it," said he.
Susan took the money without hesitation.She was used to these careless generosities of the men of that class--generosities passing with them and with the unthinking for evidences of goodness of heart, when in fact no generosity has any significance whatever beyond selfish vanity unless it is a sacrifice of necessities--real necessities.
"I don't think I'll need money," said she."But I may.""You've got a trunk and a bag on the cab outside," he went on.
"I've told them at Sherry's that I'm to be married."Susan flushed.She hastily lowered her eyes.But she need not have feared lest he should suspect the cause of the blush...a strange, absurd resentment of the idea that she could be married to Freddie Palmer.Live with him--yes.But marry--now that it was thus squarely presented to her, she found it unthinkable.She did not pause to analyze this feeling, indeed could not have analyzed it, had she tried.It was, however, a most interesting illustration of how she had been educated at last to look upon questions of sex as a man looks on them.She was like the man who openly takes a mistress whom he in no circumstances would elevate to the position of wife.
"So," he proceeded, "you might as well move in at Sherry's.""No," objected she."Let's not begin the new deal until we sail."The wisdom of this was obvious."Then we'll take your things over to the Manhattan Hotel," said he."And we'll start the search from there."But after registering at the Manhattan as Susan Lenox, she started out alone.She would not let him look in upon any part of her life which she could keep veiled.
