the first time I’d worn it. Forty years ago—ah, Alec, let’s hurry back to the present. Memories—sometimes they hurt.” She was silent for a moment. “Three hundred thousand, you say.”
“I don’t guarantee I can get that much,” he told her. “I said the necklace was worth it. But it isn’t always easy to find a buyer who will meet your terms. The man I have in mind—”
“Oh—you’ve found some one—”
“Well—yes—I have. But he refuses to go above two hundred and twenty thousand. Of course, if you’re in a hurry to sell—”
“I am,” she answered. “Who is this Midas?”
“Madden,” he said. “P.J. Madden.”
“Not the big Wall Street man? The Plunger?”
“Yes. You know him?”
“Only through the newspapers. He’s famous, of course, but I’ve never seen him.”
Eden frowned. “That’s curious,” he said. “He appeared to know you. I had heard he was in town, and when you telephoned me the other day, I went at once to his hotel. He admitted he was on the lookout for a string as a present for his daughter, but he was pretty cold at first. However, when I mentioned the Phillimore pearls, he laughed.’Sally Phillimore’s pearls,’he said.’I'll take them.’'Three hundred thousand,’I said.’Two hundred and twenty and not a penny more,’he answered. And looked at me with those eyes of his—as well try to bargain with this fellow here.” He indicated a small bronze Buddha on his desk.
Sally Jordan seemed puzzled. “But Alec—he couldn’t know me. I don’t understand. However, he’s offering a
