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Keeping her eyes fixed steadily on the other's face, Tuppence replied quietly:
"Money----"
Mrs. Vandemeyer started. Clearly, the reply was unexpected.
"
"
What do you mean?"
I'll tell you. You said just now that you had a long memory. A long memory isn't
half as useful as a long purse! I dare say it relieves your feelings a good deal to
plan out all sorts of dreadful things to do to me, but is that PRACTICAL? Revenge
is very unsatisfactory. Every one always says so. But money"--Tuppence warmed
to her pet creed--"well, there's nothing unsatisfactory about money, is there?"
"
Do you think," said Mrs. Vandemeyer scornfully, "that I am the kind of woman to
sell my friends?"
"
"
"
Yes," said Tuppence promptly. "If the price was big enough."
A paltry hundred pounds or so!"
No," said Tuppence. "I should suggest--a hundred thousand!"
Her economical spirit did not permit her to mention the whole million dollars
suggested by Julius.
A flush crept over Mrs. Vandemeyer's face.
"What did you say?" she asked, her fingers playing nervously with a brooch on
her breast. In that moment Tuppence knew that the fish was hooked, and for the
first time she felt a horror of her own money-loving spirit. It gave her a dreadful
sense of kinship to the woman fronting her.
"
A hundred thousand pounds," repeated Tuppence.
The light died out of Mrs. Vandemeyer's eyes. She leaned back in her chair.
"
"
Bah!" she said. "You haven't got it."
No," admitted Tuppence, "I haven't--but I know some one who has."
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