"You're right, Pyne!" he said. "But she's damn pretty!" He uttered a
loud sigh. "If only she were not married!"
Sir Lucien gripped the outstretched hand, but his answering smile had
much pathos in it.
"If only she were not, Gray," he echoed.
He took his departure shortly afterwards, absently leaving a brown
packet of cigarettes upon the table. It was an accident. Yet there
were few, when the truth respecting Sir Lucien Pyne became known, who
did not believe it to have been a deliberate act, designed to lure
Quentin Gray into the path of the poppy.
CHAPTER XXII
THE STRANGLE-HOLD
Less than a month later Rita was in a state of desperation again.
Kazmah's prices had soared above anything that he had hitherto
extorted. Her bank account, as usual, was greatly overdrawn, and
creditors of all kinds were beginning to press for payment. Then,
crowning catastrophe, Monte Irvin, for the first time during their
married life, began to take an interest in Rita's reckless
expenditure. By a combination of adverse circumstances, she, the wife
of one of the wealthiest aldermen of the City of London, awakened to
the fact that literally she had no money.
She pawned as much of her jewellery as she could safely dispose of,
and temporarily silenced the more threatening tradespeople; but Kazmah
declined to give credit, and cheques had never been acceptable at the
establishment in old Bond Street.
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