are twenty-five. By that time I hope the world will have adjusted itself
and I shall have the leisure to companion you. Meanwhile, be a child. It
is very refreshing to me. Come. I must lock this thing up. I have an
interview here with Spaulding in about ten minutes."

She gave it up reluctantly, kissing it much as she had kissed him during
their engagement; warm, lingering, but almost impersonal kisses. The ruby
seemed miraculously to have restored her beaten youth.

She sat on the edge of a chair as he opened the safe and placed the jewel
in its box and drawer.

"There is one other thing I wanted to ask," he said as he rose. "Is your
allowance sufficient? It has sometimes occurred to me that you wanted
more--for some feminine extravagance."

The light went out of her face. He wondered whimsically if he had locked
it in with the ruby, and once more he was conscious that something
intangible floated between them. But she looked at him squarely with her
shadowed eyes.

"Oh, one could spend any amount, of course, but I really have
quite enough."

"You shall have double your present allowance when these cursed times
improve. And I have always intended to settle a couple of hundred
thousand on you--a quarter of a million--as soon as I could realize
without loss on certain investments. But one day I want you to be quite
independent."