Virginia dashed my wife's hand away. "In other words, you think I'm crazy!" she snapped.
"No, but I do think you're hysterical. This is Winnie, I'm Jimmie and you're Virginia Rutherford. We've all been letting ourselves get over-emotional and this war is a strain on everybody. Don't worry. Jerry can fix it for you quite easily and I--we both will be glad to help pay for it, if you're worried about the money. After all," Germaine added wryly, "the whole thing is pretty much of a family affair, isn't it? Let's keep it that way."
Mrs. Rutherford reached over and grabbed the gun from the sofa.
"All right, Germaine Tompkins, murderess," she grated. "If that's the way you're going to play it, I'll play too. Don't worry about my mind. Start thinking about the electric chair. Remember, in this state they execute women who kill their husbands."
Jimmie waited until the door closed behind the doctor's wife. Then she turned to me with a curious expression of weariness.
"Poor man!" she remarked. "You have got yourself into a bad mess, haven't you?"
"It didn't seem like one while I was getting into it," I said. "It's only now when I'm trying to get things straightened out that it seems so awful."
"Let's see," she continued. "How many women is it you've been trying to keep away from each other? There's myself, of course, but wives don't count any more, do they? And there's Virginia Rutherford and Myrtle, and there was that blonde actress we met at Martha's Vineyard last summer, and is it one or two girls at the office?"
Here was where I could object with complete sincerity. "I swear that I've not been fooling with any of the office girls," I said.
"I know," Jimmie agreed wisely. "You always used to tell me that it was considered bad for business to play with the help but after I saw the way you went for Myrtle I decided that there were exceptions to every rule."
"Nobody in the office," I repeated. "I swear it."
"Then perhaps it was the office next door. Maybe you brokers have an exchange system for taking on each other's stenographers--charge it to business expenses for getting information about each other's dealings--but I know I've heard the name Briggs mentioned somehow in your connection."