Jackson Gregory

“ A man universally liked, one who was now here, now there, filled with the joy of life and its seething tumultuous unrest; a man who had been a millionaire himself, who had gone almost broke, who had taken his losses with a large smile, who had recouped, who was now somewhere off in Peru, his wife with him, adventuring and cabling home at uncertain intervals, a man whom his friends and enemies named a dead-game sport.
“Alice is just like her dad. Only finer, of course, with the real worthwhile femininity of her,” said Burt.
“And she and Carrington?” suggested Steele. ”

“ Were Stephen Carrington the last man in the world I wouldn't crook my little finger to call him away from Marvella Nevil or any other beautiful lady who attracted him. If a man isn't all for me, first, last, and all the time, I don't want him.”
“But,” contended Steele, “were he nothing more than just a good friend—— Don't you see he is about to be robbed, tricked, perhaps led into very great physical danger? The ways of King Reagan are not finicky. Why, simple humanity——”
“You harp on the human string,” she cut him short, “when, can't you see, it's another question? ”

“ There are always so many forgotten things to be looked after the last minute, you know.”
“I'll try not to waste your time,” Steele hastened to say. And immediately he plunged into his story. He could see little to lose by recounting it, since at the most all Alice Blake could do in opposition would be to tell Carrington, and Carrington, if he passed the news of Steele's interest on to Reagan, would merely be telling Reagan that which he knew already. ”