"You can"t get out of it with a compliment. I"m an ordinary woman and I"m going to beat a real man."
Ashe frowned.
"I don"t like to think of ourselves as working against each other."
"Why not?"
"Because I like you."
"I like you, Mr. Marson; but we must not let sentiment interfere with business. You want Mr. Peters" five thousand dollars. So do I."
"I hate the thought of being the instrument to prevent you from getting the money."
"You won"t be. I shall be the instrument to prevent you from getting it. I don"t like that thought, either; but one has got to face it."
"It makes me feel mean."
"That"s simply your old-fashioned masculine att.i.tude toward the female, Mr. Marson. You look on woman as a weak creature, to be shielded and petted. We aren"t anything of the sort. We"re terrors! We"re as hard as nails. We"re awful creatures. You mustn"t let my s.e.x interfere with your trying to get this reward.
Think of me as though I were another man. We"re up against each other in a fair fight, and I don"t want any special privileges.
If you don"t do your best from now onward I shall never forgive you. Do you understand?"
"I suppose so."
"And we shall need to do our best. That little man with the gla.s.ses is on his guard. I was listening to you last night from behind the door. By the way, you shouldn"t have told me to run away and then have stayed yourself to be caught. That is an example of the sort of thing I mean. It was chivalry--not business."
"I had a story ready to account for my being there. You had not."
"And what a capital story it was! I shall borrow it for my own use. If I am caught I shall say I had to read Aline to sleep because she suffers from insomnia. And I shouldn"t wonder if she did--poor girl! She doesn"t get enough to eat. She is being starved--poor child! I heard one of the footmen say that she refused everything at dinner last night. And, though she vows it isn"t, my belief is that it"s all because she is afraid to make a stand against her old father. It"s a shame!"
"She is a weak creature, to be shielded and petted," said Ashe solemnly.
Joan laughed.
"Well, yes; you caught me there. I admit that poor Aline is not a shining example of the formidable modern woman; but--" She stopped. "Oh, bother! I"ve just thought of what I ought to have said--the good repartee that would have crushed you. I suppose it"s too late now?"
"Not at all. I"m like that myself--only it is generally the next day when I hit the right answer. Shall we go back? ... She is a weak creature, to be shielded and petted."
"Thank you so much," said Joan gratefully. "And why is she a weak creature? Because she has allowed herself to be shielded and petted; because she has permitted man to give her special privileges, and generally--No; it isn"t so good as I thought it was going to be."
"It should be crisper," said Ashe critically. "It lacks the punch."
"But it brings me back to my point, which is that I am not going to imitate her and forfeit my independence of action in return for chivalry. Try to look at it from my point of view, Mr.
Marson. I know you need the money just as much as I do. Well, don"t you think I should feel a little mean if I thought you were not trying your hardest to get it, simply because you didn"t think it would be fair to try your hardest against a woman? That would cripple me. I should not feel as though I had the right to do anything. It"s too important a matter for you to treat me like a child and let me win to avoid disappointing me. I want the money; but I don"t want it handed to me."
"Believe me," said Ashe earnestly, "it will not be handed to you.
I have studied the Baxter question more deeply than you have, and I can a.s.sure you that Baxter is a menace. What has put him so firmly on the right scent I don"t know; but he seems to have divined the exact state of affairs in its entirety--so far as I am concerned, that is to say. Of course he has no idea you are mixed up in the business; but I am afraid his suspicion of me will hit you as well. What I mean is that, for some time to come, I fancy that man proposes to camp out on the rug in front of the museum door. It would be madness for either of us to attempt to go there at present."
"It is being made very hard for us, isn"t it? And I thought it was going to be so simple."
"I think we should give him at least a week to simmer down."
"Fully that."
"Let us look on the bright side. We are in no hurry. Blandings Castle is quite as comfortable as Number Seven Arundell Street, and the commissariat department is a revelation to me. I had no idea English servants did themselves so well. And, as for the social side, I love it; I revel in it. For the first time in my life I feel as though I am somebody. Did you observe my manner toward the kitchen maid who waited on us at dinner last night? A touch of the old n.o.blesse about it, I fancy. Dignified but not unkind, I think. And I can keep it up. So far as I am concerned, let this life continue indefinitely."
"But what about Mr. Peters? Don"t you think there is danger he may change his mind about that five thousand dollars if we keep him waiting too long?"
"Not a chance of it. Being almost within touch of the scarab has had the worst effect on him. It has intensified the craving. By the way, have you seen the scarab?"
"Yes; I got Mrs. Twemlow to take me to the museum while you were talking to the butler. It was dreadful to feel that it was lying there in the open waiting for somebody to take it, and not be able to do anything."
"I felt exactly the same. It isn"t much to look at, is it? If it hadn"t been for the label I wouldn"t have believed it was the thing for which Peters was offering five thousand dollars"
reward. But that"s his affair. A thing is worth what somebody will give for it. Ours not to reason why; ours but to elude Baxter and gather it in."
"Ours, indeed! You speak as though we were partners instead of rivals."
Ashe uttered an exclamation. "You"ve hit it! Why not? Why any cutthroat compet.i.tion? Why shouldn"t we form a company? It would solve everything."
Joan looked thoughtful.
"You mean divide the reward?"
"Exactly--into two equal parts."
"And the labor?"
"The labor?"
"How shall we divide that?"
Ashe hesitated.
"My idea," he said, "was that I should do what I might call the rough work; and--"
"You mean you should do the actual taking of the scarab?"
"Exactly. I would look after that end of it."
"And what would my duties be?"
"Well, you--you would, as it were--how shall I put it? You would, so to speak, lend moral support."
"By lying snugly in bed, fast asleep?"
Ashe avoided her eye.
"Well, yes--er--something on those lines."