"You mean—?" she began.
"I mean just that.
I'm wiping the slate clean.
I'm letting it all go to smash.
When them thirty million dollars stood up to my face and said I couldn't go out with you in the hills to-day, I knew the time had come for me to put my foot down.
And I'm putting it down.
I've got you, and my strength to work for you, and that little ranch in Sonoma.
That's all I want, and that's all I'm going to save out, along with Bob and Wolf, a suit case and a hundred and forty hair bridles.
All the rest goes, and good riddance.
It's that much junk."
But Dede was insistent.
"Then this—this tremendous loss is all unnecessary?" she asked.
"Just what I haven't been telling you.
It IS necessary.
If that money thinks it can stand up right to my face and say I can't go riding with you—"
"No, no; be serious," Dede broke in.
"I don't mean that, and you know it.
What I want to know is, from a standpoint of business, is this failure necessary?"
He shook his head.
"You bet it isn't necessary.
That's the point of it.
I'm not letting go of it because I'm licked to a standstill by the panic and have got to let go.
I'm firing it out when I've licked the panic and am winning, hands down.
That just shows how little I think of it.
It's you that counts, little woman, and I make my play accordingly."
But she drew away from his sheltering arms.
"You are mad, Elam."
"Call me that again," he murmured ecstatically.
"It's sure sweeter than the chink of millions."
All this she ignored.
"It's madness.
You don't know what you are doing—"
"Oh, yes, I do," he assured her.
"I'm winning the dearest wish of my heart.
Why, your little finger is worth more—"
"Do be sensible for a moment."
"I was never more sensible in my lie.
I know what I want, and I'm going to get it.
I want you and the open air.
I want to get my foot off the paving-stones and my ear away from the telephone.
I want a little ranch-house in one of the prettiest bits of country God ever made, and I want to do the chores around that ranch-house—milk cows, and chop wood, and curry horses, and plough the ground, and all the rest of it; and I want you there in the ranch-house with me.
I'm plumb tired of everything else, and clean wore out.
And I'm sure the luckiest man alive, for I've got what money can't buy.
I've got you, and thirty millions couldn't buy you, nor three thousand millions, nor thirty cents—"
A knock at the door interrupted him, and he was left to stare delightedly at the Crouched Venus and on around the room at Dede's dainty possessions, while she answered the telephone.
"It is Mr. Hegan," she said, on returning.
"He is holding the line.
He says it is important."
Daylight shook his head and smiled.
"Please tell Mr. Hegan to hang up.