Page:Sanctuary (Wharton 1903).djvu/26

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SANCTUARY

He started up again, and threw himself into another chair. "Good God, Kate! We gave her every chance to prove her case—why did n't she do it? You don't know what you're talking about—such things are kept from girls. Why, whenever a man of Arthur's kind dies, such—such women turn up. There are lawyers who live on such jobs—ask your father about it. Of course, this woman expected to be bought off—"

"But if she would n't take your money?"

"She expected a big sum, I mean, to drop the case. When she found we meant to fight it, she saw the game was up. I suppose it was her last throw, and she was desperate; we don't know how many times she may have been through the same thing before. That kind of woman is always trying to make money out of the heirs of any man who—who has—been about with them."

Kate received this in silence. She had a sense of walking along a narrow ledge of

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