Halo's indifference was giving way to a sense of counter-irritation. Where would he go to dig up his next grievance, she wondered? And just as she ought to be writing out the labels—! "Oh, if that's all—" The whole subject of the Pulsifer Prize, with its half-confessed background of wire-pulling and influencing, was particularly distasteful to her, and she was really thankful there was no time to deal with it.

"All?" Tarrant echoed. "It's everything. She fell for Weston the minute she laid eyes on him—that evening at the party here. It was rather what we'd planned the thing for—you remember? And she's been awfully nice to him ever since … seeing him very often, and encouraging him a good deal, I imagine. You know what she is."

Halo murmured reluctantly: "Well—?"

"Well, what does the infernal fool do? Goes there the other day and holds her up for a loan."

"A loan?"

"A loan. And how much, do you suppose? The exact amount of the prize. Two thousand dollars—not a copper less!" Tarrant started up angrily and began to pace the floor. "She sent for me today; I never saw a woman so upset. She says he talked as if he were merely asking for an advance—as if his getting the prize was a sure thing, and she might as well hand the cash over at once, as long as he was bound to get it."

Thoughts of luggage labels and deck chairs vanished from Halo's mind. Into their place there stole a cold insidious dread of what was coming, of what her husband was going to say, and she was going to feel about it. "Nonsense, Lewis," she exclaimed. "I don't believe he ever said anything like that."

Tarrant laughed. "We all know you think he can't do wrong. But I suppose you'll admit he did ask for the money, if she says so?"

Halo pondered. She had forgotten herself and Tarrant in the shock of a new distress. "Poor fellow—I wonder why he wanted it so badly."

"Well, I own I'm less interested in that. What I care about is that he's fairly dished us, and that we were banking on the prize to give us a boost at the end of the year. With a new review it would have made a lot of difference. But the idea of considering us is the last that would enter his head."

"I suppose it is, if he wanted the money as much as that; and he must have, to dream of asking Jet Pulsifer."

"Oh, I don't know. I daresay it's rather in his line. That kind of man, when he sees a woman's gone on him … "

"He's not that kind of man!" Halo exclaimed. She also stood up, trembling with an unaccountable dismay. "What reason did he give—didn't she tell you?"