"What mess?" she questioned quickly. "More trouble with your father?"
"Yes, another letter. He's sore because I've been away from New York so long, neglecting my business, he says, and spending too much money. He will come around all right; he always does, but to tell you the truth he refused to send me the check I asked for."
"No, but it's sure to be all right. I sent him a 'day letter,' and he'll come around, but it rattled me, and my lawyers wrote that my confounded wife sticks out for fifty thousand!"
"I wired them to offer forty cash. I know the old man will pay that. He's tired of having her around Cleveland, calling herself Mrs. Fenway. Forty thousand is an awful hold-up, but I can't wait. The whole thing may be settled to-day."
"If your father, who has refused you ten thousand, agrees to give you fifty, and if this woman, who has stood out for fifty thousand, agrees to take forty, if all this happens you will be a free man, but these things have not happened yet, and if they do you will have to prove to me that there will be no more of this talk about the money you have spent on me, and the obligation I am supposed to be under to you, before I will agree to tie myself to you. Favors! Look at me! If I am not worth the few thousand I have cost you, go back to Broadway; you can buy more for your money there!"
"Don't, Lola. Don't talk that way! I never thought a thing like that. I don't deserve to have to hear you say it. When have I denied you anything, when have I asked anything in return, but just that you would care for me? I was wrong to lose my head, of course; you can't help it if that cad of a life-guard has the nerve to hang around you. Can't you let it go at that? Can't you see that I am worried enough, without your turning against me?"
"I see," she answered coldly, "that Bob and Mrs. Harlan are coming, and it is hardly necessary to take them into our confidence. Mrs. Harlan has quite enough knowledge of our affairs; I think it is about time we saw the last of her. If you had less to do with women of that class, you might be able to remember that you can't talk to me as though I were one of them."
Mrs. Harlan, as they all walked back to the hotel together, could not make up her mind as to just how matters stood. Dick was nervous, that was plain enough, but Lola's mood puzzled her; she was very quiet, very thoughtful, and from time to time, when she looked at Dick, she seemed to be trying to make up her mind.