“Liar,” laughed Tuppence. “But I always did think I’d rather marry a liar than a fool.”
“I suppose,” said Tommy, “that there’s no absolute necessity for a husband to be either?”
But Tuppence merely threw him a pitying glance and withdrew.
Amongst Mrs. Laidlaw’s train of admirers was a simple but extremely wealthy gentleman of the name of Hank Ryder.
Mr. Ryder came from Alabama, and from the first he was disposed to make a friend and confidant of Tommy.
“That’s a wonderful woman, sir,” said Mr. Ryder, following the lovely Marguerite with reverential eyes. “Plumb full of civilisation. Can’t beat la gaie France , can you? When I’m near her, I feel as though I was one of the Almighty’s earliest experiments. I guess He’d got to get His hand in before He attempted anything so lovely as that perfectly lovely woman.”
Tommy agreeing politely with these sentiments, Mr. Ryder unburdened himself still further.
“Seems kind of a shame a lovely creature like that should have money worries.”
“Has she?” asked Tommy.
“You betcha life she has. Queer fish, Laidlaw. She’s skeered of him. Told me so. Daren’t tell him about her little bills.”
“Are they little bills?” asked Tommy.
“Well—when I say little! After all, a woman’s got to wear clothes, and the less there are of them the more they cost, the way I figure it out. And a