She saw that his vanity was hurt.
"But I hope all sorts of unusual things about you," she went on, her
conscience rebuking her for using the wile of flattery. But it served
well; the cloud passed from his face, as he begged her not to expect to
see him a saint too soon.
A few days later he came in radiant; the operation had gone splendidly,
there was a cent. per cent. profit; she was to come with him and buy the
necklace at once. May loved necklaces and liked him for being so eager to
give her one. And she did not wish to appear in the light of a prig (that
had probably been his impression of her) again so soon. But had he not
the evening before, as they talked over their prospects, told her that he
owed Dick Benyon a thousand pounds or more, and was in arrears with the
instalments by which the debt was to be liquidated? By a not unnatural
turn of her mind she found herself less able to allow him to forget his
obligation, less able to indulge him in the temporary extravagance of a
lover, than if he had been a man on whose punctilious honour in all
matters of money she relied absolutely.
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