innuendo and actions with the proverbial ease of a duck disposing of a
shower. But just words--the right words--will bring tears to her eyes.
Well, I'd stumbled on the right words."

"'No,' she said, with a far-away look, 'I've never had a man hold me
like that. Why?'"

"'Why?' I said, 'Because I will--some day.'"

"'You!'"

"I can't give you all the derision she put into that 'you!' Then her
face and her eyes went as hard as flint. 'Money?' she asked, and I
answered, 'No; love.'"

Leighton looked at his cigarette end and flipped it into the fire.

"She laughed, of course, and when she laughed she became to me the most
unattainable and consequently the most desirable of women. I was at that
age.

"Well, to cut the story short, I went mad over her, but it wasn't the
madness that loses its head. It was just cunning--the cunning with a
touch of fanaticism that always reaches its goal. I laid seige to her by
day and by night, and at last, one day, she sent for me. She was alone;
I could see that she meant us to be alone. She made me sit down. She
stood in front of me. To my eyes she had become beautiful. I wanted her,
really wanted her.

"What she said was this: 'I've sent for you because, if you keep on,