"
"What?" Though Barney's voice was low, it had the effect of a startled
and savage roar. "And chuck us over-board?"
"Not at all. If I married Dick for keeps, I intended to pay you a lump
sum, or else a regular amount each year."
"No, you don't!" Barney cried in the same muffled roar.
"Perhaps not--I haven't decided," Maggie said evenly. "I've merely
been telling you, as you requested me, why I did as I did. I refused
Dick, and lied to you, so that I might have more time to think over
what I really wanted to do."
Instinctively she had counted on rousing Barney's jealousy in order to
throw him off the track of her real thoughts. She succeeded.
"I can tell you what you're going to do!" Barney flung at her with
fierce mastery. "You're not going to put over a sure-enough marriage
with any Dick Sherwood! When there's that kind of a marriage, I'm
going to be the man! And you're going to go right straight ahead with
our old plan! Dick'll propose again if you give him half a chance. And
when he does, you say 'yes'! Understand? That's what you're going to
do!"
There was no safety in openly defying Barney. And as a matter of fact
what he had ordered was what, in the shifting currents of her
thoughts, the steady momentum of her old ambitions and purposes had
been pushing her toward.
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