" A short laugh broke from him as he flicked
the ash from his cigar on to the small bronze receptacle at his elbow.
"It is not many years since it would have been difficult for a girl to
be frank enough to say, 'When I marry I shall ask something in exchange
for what I have to give.'"
"There are not many who have as much to give," said Mount Dunstan
coolly.
"True," with a slight shrug. "You are thinking that men are glad enough
to take a girl like that--even one who has not a shape like Diana's and
eyes like the sea. Yes, by George," softly, and narrowing his lids, "she
IS a handsome creature."
Mount Dunstan did not attempt to refute the statement, and Anstruthers
laughed low again.
"It is an asset she knows the value of quite clearly. That is the
interesting part of it. She has inherited the far-seeing commercial
mind. She does not object to admitting it. She educated herself in
delightful cold blood that she might be prepared for the largest prize
appearing upon the horizon. She held things in view when she was a
child at school, and obviously attacked her French, German, and Italian
conjugations with a twelve-year-old eye on the future."
Mount Dunstan leaning back carelessly in his chair, laughed--as it
seemed--with him.
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