We’d been through this plenty of times before. I took out my wallet and slipped two twenties out of the billfold, crumpled them up, and stuck them in her palm. Somehow Peggy never seemed to have enough cash. In the year since I’d met her, I figured I’d given her a couple of thousand in cash, a drib and a drab at a time, aside from all the money I’d spent on her. Well, it hadn’t mattered much to me. Helen had plenty of money when I married her, and she was due to come into plenty more next year. I could write Peggy off as an expensive hobby, period. As long as Helen didn’t find out where the cash was going.

I stood up and put my hands on her shoulders, lightly.

“Got a little surprise for you, Peggy.”

“Surprise?”

“To celebrate the good news. I’ve booked a cabin upstate for us. Two weeks all alone in the woods—no wives, no neighbors, no tiptoeing and secrecy. Just the two of us. I’ve got it all arranged. My wife thinks I’m going on a boating trip with a friend of mine—a male friend. While I’m away my attorney will let her know the score. Maybe the divorce won’t take long. We can get married in a month or so, maybe. It’ll be a sort of advance honeymoon, up there in the woods.”

Her eyes were wide and clear. “Oh, Mike, that’s wonderful!” she oozed.

Yeah. Wonderful. A cabin for two—but only one of us was coming back.

Well, I didn’t want it to happen. I tried to get Peggy to take precautions. But I couldn’t let her have any babies, and I damn well wasn’t going to divorce Helen and marry her. Peg’s ten years younger and twenty pounds lighter than Helen, but she’s also a couple million dollars poorer. I really didn’t have any choice in the matter. Not at all.

I held her in my arms. Peggy Armour, age twenty-three. Three months pregnant, and due to die in the next two weeks. It was a pity. But it couldn’t be helped.

Maybe if Helen had been a little warmer, I’d never have been driven to find a Peggy, and the whole chain of events would never have gotten started. If. But Helen had good looks and a million bucks. It was asking too much to expect a loving heart besides.

* * *

I reached our eleven-room place on the Island just before dinner time. It used to be the old Jesperson mansion, and in its day it was one of the swellest places out here. It’s still imposing, though some of the newer homes in our section are even fancier.