In the most unobtrusive manner they kept in touch with her.  Hunter had so adroitly wirepulled, and so deftly softened and toned down Inglesby’s crudities, that Mrs. Eustis had become the latter’s open champion.  Condescending and patronizing, she liked the importance of lending a very rich man her social countenance.  She insisted that he was misunderstood.  Men of great fortunes are always misunderstood.  Nobody considers it a virtue to be charitable to the rich—­they save all their charity for the poor, who as often as not are undeserving, and are generally insanitary as well.  Mrs. Eustis thanked her heavenly Father she was a woman of larger vision, and never thought ill of a man just because he happened to be a millionaire.  Millionaires have got souls, she hoped?  And hearts?  Mrs. Eustis said she knew Mr. Inglesby’s noble heart, my dear, whether others did or not.

Compelled to apparently jilt Laurence, Mary Virginia sank deeper and deeper into the slough of despond.  A terror of Inglesby’s power, as of something supernatural, was growing upon her, a terror almost childish in its intensity.  He had begun to occupy the niche vacated by the Boogerman her Dah had threatened her with in her nursery.  She could barely conceal this terror, save that an instinct warned her that to let him know she feared him would be fatal.  And she felt for him a physical repulsion strong enough to be nauseating.

The fact that she disdained and perhaps even disliked him and made no effort to conceal her feelings, did not in the least ruffle his bland complacency nor affront his pride.  He knew that not even an Inglesby could hope to find a Mary Virginia more than once in a lifetime, and the haughtier she was the more she pleased him; it added to his innate sense of power, and this in itself endeared her to him inexpressibly.

But as the girl still held out stubbornly, trying to evade the final word that would force a climax disastrous any way she viewed it, Inglesby’s patience was exhausted.  He was determined to make her come to terms by the word of her own mouth, and he had no doubt that her final word must be Yes; perhaps a Yes reluctant enough, but nevertheless one to which he meant to hold her.

To make that final demand more impressive, Hunter was not entrusted with the interview.  Hunter may have been doubtful as to the wisdom of this, but Inglesby could no longer forego the delight of dealing with Mary Virginia personally.  On the Saturday night, then, Mrs. Eustis being absent, Mr. Inglesby, manicured, massaged, immaculate, shaven and shorn, called in person; and not daring to refuse, Mary Virginia received him, wondering if for her the end of the world had not come.

He made a mistake, for Mary Virginia had her back against the wall, literally waiting for the Eustis roof to fall.  But he could not forego the pleasure of witnessing her pride lower its crest to him.  He did not relish a go-between, even such a successful one as his secretary.  He had made up his mind that she should have until to-morrow night, Sunday, to come to a decision—­just that long, and not another hour.  He was not getting younger; he wanted to marry, to found a great establishment as whose mistress Mary Virginia should shine.  And she was making him lose time.