He might love her,
as she knew he did; but that would not be a check upon his
ruthlessness if he thought himself balked or betrayed.
Just then her telephone began to ring. She started to move toward it,
but Barney's grip checked her short.
"You're going to answer me--not any damned telephone! Let it ring!"
The bell rang for a minute or two before it stilled its shrill clamor.
Its ringing was in a way a brief respite to Maggie, for it gave her
additional time to consider what should be her course. She realized
that she dared not let Barney believe at this moment that she had
turned against him. Again she fell back upon her cool, self-confident
manner.
"You want to know why? The answer is simple enough. I thought I might
try out an improvement of our plan--something that might suit me
better."
"What's that?" Barney harshly demanded.
"Since Miss Sherwood fell for me so easy, it struck me that she'd be
pretty sure to fall for me if I told her the whole truth about myself.
That is, everything except our scheme to play Dick for a sucker."
"What're you driving at?"
"Don't you see? If she forgave me being what I am, and I rather think
she would, and with Dick liking me as he does--why, it struck me as
the best thing for yours truly to marry Dick for keeps.
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