"Hello!" said Cutty, emerging from one of the doors. "What the dickens
have you been up to? My man has just telephoned me that he lost track of
you in Wanamaker's."
Kitty explained, delighted.
"Well, well! If you can lose a man such as I set to watch you, you'll
have no trouble shaking the others."
"It was Karlov, Cutty."
"How did you learn?"
"Searched the morgue and found a half tone of him. Positively Karlov.
How is the patient?"
"Harrison says he's pulling round amazingly. A tough skull. He'll be up
for his meals in no time."
"How do you do it?" she asked with a gesture.
"Do what?"
"Manage a place like this? In a busy office district. It's the most
wonderful apartment in New York. Riverside has nothing like it. It must
cost like sixty."
"The building is mine, Kitty. That makes it possible. An uncle who knew
I hated money and the responsibilities that go with it, died and left it
to me."
"Why, Cutty, you must be rich!"
"I'm sorry. What can I do? I can't give it away."
"But you don't have to work!"
"Oh, yes, I do. I'm that kind. I'd die of a broken heart if I had to sit
still. It's the game."
"Did mother know?"
"Yes."
With the toe of a snug little bronze boot Kitty drew an outline round a
pattern in the rug.
"Love is a funny thing," was her comment.
"It sure is, old-timer. But what put the thought into your head?"
"I was thinking how very much mumsy must have been in love with father."
"But she never knew that I loved her, Kitty."
"What's that got to do with it? If she had wanted money you wouldn't
have had the least chance in the world."
"Probably not! But what would you have done in your mother's place?"
"Snapped you up like that!" Kitty flashed back.
"You cheerful little--little--"
"Liar. Say it!" Kitty laughed. "But am I a cheerful little liar? I don't
know. It would be an awful temptation. Somebody to wait on you; heaps of
flowers when you wanted them; beautiful gowns and thingummies and furs
and limousines. I've often wondered what I should do if I found myself
with love and youth on one side and money and attraction on the other.
I've always been in straitened circumstances. I never spent a dollar in
all my days when I didn't think I ought to have held back three or
four cents of it. You can't know, Cutty, what it is to be poor and want
beautiful things and good times. Of course. I couldn't marry just
money. There would have to be some kind of a man to go with it. Someone
interesting enough to make me forget sometimes that I'd thrown away a
lover for a pocket-book."