"I'm afraid not. All I've heard is the common gossip."

"There's a good deal here that doesn't show on the surface. That
woman is a menace to a great many people, of whom I happen to be
one."

"You speak as if she were a dangerous character, and as if she had
deliberately entangled him," Lorelei said, defendingly. "As a
matter of fact, she did nothing of the sort; she avoided him as
long as she could, but he forced his attentions upon her. He's a
man who refuses defeat. He persisted, he persecuted her until she
was forced to--accept him. Men of his wealth can do anything, you
know. Sometimes I think--but it's none of my business."

"What do you sometimes think?"

"That she hates him."

"Nonsense."

"I know she did at first; I don't wonder that she makes him pay
now. It's according to her code and the code of this business."

"I can't believe she--dislikes him."

"He may have won her finally, but at first she refused his gifts,
refused even to meet him."

"She had scruples?"