"I'm not asking the bank to do this for me," she said, and she looked extra lovely (on purpose, of course). "I'm asking you----"
Mr. Hemingway poked the cluster of jewels very gingerly with his forefinger as if they were a lizard.
"And, of course," she said, "they are worth twice the money; maybe three or four times."
"Perhaps," said Mr. Hemingway, "you will take offence if I suggest that your father----"
The muslin over her shoulders tightened the least in the world. She had shrugged them.
"Of course," she said, "papa would do it; but he would insist on reasons. My reasons involve another, Mr. Hemingway, and so it would not be honorable for me to give them."
"And yet," said the banker, twinkling, "your reasons would tempt me to accommodate you with the loan you ask for far more than your collateral."
"Oh," she said, "you are a business man. I could give you reasons, and be sure they would go no further--even if you thought them funny. But if papa heard them, and thought them funny, as he would, he would play the sieve. I don't want this money for myself, Mr. Hemingway."
"I wish to lend it in turn," she said, "to a person who has been reckless, and who is in trouble, but in whom I believe.... But perhaps," she went on, "the person, who is very proud, will take offence at my offer of help.... In which case, Mr. Hemingway, I should return you the money to-morrow."
"Oh," she said, "I couldn't bear to be teased. The person is a young gentleman. Any interest that I take in him is a business interest, pure and simple. I believe that, tided over his present difficulties, he will steady down and become a credit to his sex. Can I say more than that?" She smiled drolly.
"Men who are a credit to their sex," said Mr. Hemingway, "are not rare, but young gentlemen----"
"This one," said she, "has in him the makings of a man. Just now he is discouraged."
"Is he taking anything for it?" asked Mr. Hemingway with some sarcasm.
"Cards, and betting--and the hopeless optimism of youth," said she.
"And you wish to lend him five thousand dollars, and your interest in him is platonic?"
"Nothing so ardent," said she demurely. "I wish him to pay his debts, to give me his word that he will neither drink nor gamble until he has paid back the debt to me, and I shall suggest that he go out to one of those big Western States and become a man."