"Enough of all this!" he said--"Do you know it's nearly ten o'clock
at night?--I suppose you do know!--and the people at the Plaza--"

"THEY know!"--she interrupted, nodding sagaciously--"They know I am
rich--rich--rich! It doesn't matter what I do, because I am rich! I
might stay out all night with a bear-man, and nobody would say a
word against me, because I am rich! I might sit on the roof of the
Plaza and swing my legs over the visitors' windows and it would be
called 'charming' because I am rich! I can appear at the table
d'hote in a bath-wrap and eat peas with a hair-pin if I like--and my
conduct will be admired, because I am rich! When I go to Europe my
photo will be in all the London pictorials with the grinning chorus-
girls, because I am rich! And I shall be called 'the beautiful,'
'the exquisite'--'the fascinating' by all the unwashed penny
journalists because I am rich! O-ooh!" and she gave a comic little
screw of her mouth and eyes--"It's great fun to be rich if you know
what to do with your riches!"

"Do YOU?" he enquired, sarcastically.

"I think so!" here she put her head on one side like a meditative
bird and her wonderful hair fell aslant like a golden wing--"I amuse
myself--as much as I can. I learn all that can be done with greedy,
stupid humanity for so much cash down! I would,"--here she paused,
and with a sudden feline swiftness of movement came close up to him-
-"I would have married YOU!--if you would have had me! I would have
given you all my money to play with,--you could have got everything
you want for your inventions and experiments, and I would have
helped you,--and then--then--you could have blown up the world and
me with it, so long as you gave me time to look at the magnificent