Pray, notice that little word 'if'."
The District Attorney interposed very suavely.
"I did once, remember."
"But you can't do it again," Mary declared, with an assurance
that excited the astonishment of the police official.
"How do you know he can't?" he blustered.
Mary laughed in a cadence of genial merriment.
"Because," she replied gaily, "if he could, he would have had me
in prison some time ago."
Burke winced, but he made shift to conceal his realization of the
truth she had stated to him.
"Huh!" he exclaimed gruffly. "I've seen them go up pretty easy."
Mary met the assertion with a serenity that was baffling.
"The poor ones," she vouchsafed; "not those that have money. I
have money, plenty of money--now."
"Money you stole!" the Inspector returned, brutally.
"Oh, dear, no!" Mary cried, with a fine show of virtuous
indignation.
"What about the thirty thousand dollars you got on that
partnership swindle?" Burke asked, sneering. "I s'pose you
didn't steal that!"
"Certainly not," was the ready reply.
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