It all looked perfectly
natural and convincing to him.
"Mona--Mona--heaven above and all the gods of hell and Hellas, what a
fool, what a fool I've been!" he exclaimed. "Mona--Mona, can you forgive
your idiot husband? I didn't read this letter because I thought it was
going to slash me on the raw--on the raw flesh of my own lacerating. I
simply couldn't bear to read what your brother said was in the letter.
Yet I couldn't destroy it, either. It was you. I had to keep it. Mona, am
I too big a fool to be your husband?"
He held out his arms with a passionate exclamation. "I asked you to kiss
me yesterday, and you wouldn't," she protested. "I tried to make you love
me yesterday, and you wouldn't. When a woman gets a rebuff like that,
when--"
She could not bear it any longer. With a cry of joy she was in his arms.
After a moment he said, "The best of all was, that you--you vixen, you
bet on that Derby and won, and--"
"With your money, remember, Shiel."
"With my money!" he cried exultingly. "Yes, that's the best of it--the
next best of it. It was your betting that was the best of all--the best
thing you ever did since we married, except your coming here."
"It's in time to help you, too--with your own money, isn't it?"
He glanced at his watch. "Hours--I'm hours to the good.
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