I don't need your pity
--now. Bankruptcy isn't so bad. It is better than living on false
credit. When the crash is over, one picks oneself up again. Hope is
eternal, and on the ruins--"
"One can build cathedrals," Lois interposed dreamily.
"Yes, or palaces. But first the old rubbish must be cleared away. One
must pay one's debts. I have very many to pay. First to you, Lois--"
"Don't! I have told you that that is all over."
"--and then to Captain Stafford. Lois, I did want to take him away
from you, but I never succeeded. It was something else that did
it--something which I have never understood."
"But which my husband knows?"
Beatrice nodded. She was not there to spare Lois or herself. She was
there to tell the truth.
"Yes, he knows. But it is a mystery which we shall never penetrate. At
any rate, I have set Captain Stafford free."
Lois said nothing. Her thoughts were busy trying to piece together the
secret. With every moment distrust and suspicion were taking stronger
hold upon her.
"Lois," Beatrice went on, "that is the least of it all. The worst of
all is that I can not pay my debts alone. I must go on ruining others.
I must ruin you."
Lois stiffened. She sat upright, as though preparing herself for a
shock which she dimly anticipated.
"Tell me what you mean," she said.
"You remember it was I who tempted Rajah Nehal Singh into forming the
Marut Company--"
"That is not what you want to say.
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