“I read just a page,” he said. But he released her arm now and only held her there by the grimness of his mood. “To sell my soul to Urquhart!⁠ ⁠… to do what young Redfern wouldn’t do!”

She did look up at him now with a flash of penetration.

“But, Wolf⁠—any deviltry he threatened you with, was to make you do it, wasn’t it? Well! You’ve done it. You’ve submitted. He can’t hurt you now, can he?”

“But the book⁠—the book, Chris!”

The girl gave a faint little laugh⁠ ⁠… the laugh of an air-sprite for whom these human scruples were growing intolerably tedious.⁠ ⁠… “Well, there are plenty of things Gerda will be glad enough to buy with this money. You’re different from what I thought you were, Wolf, if you let an absurd fancy like this prey on your mind!” She paused a moment and then said gravely, “But Mother would have understood what troubles you.”