Part 12 (1/2)
Twyning indicated the short line with a forefinger. ”That line, my boy.
Jonah's going to take me into partners.h.i.+p. Just told me.”
He had released the paper into Sabre's hand. Sabre handed it back with a single word, ”Good.”
Twyning's face darkened again and darkened worse. He crumpled the paper violently in his hand and spoke also but a single word, ”Thanks!” He turned sharply on his heel and went to the door.
”I say, Twyning!” Sabre jumped to his feet and went to Twyning with outstretched hand. ”I didn't mean to take it like that. Don't think I'm not--I congratulate you. Jolly good. Splendid. I tell you what--I don't mind telling you--it was a bit of a smack in the eye for me for a moment. You know, I've rather sweated over this business,”--his glance indicated the stacked bookshelves, the firm's publications, _his_ publications.... ”See what I mean?”
A certain movement in his throat and about his mouth indicated, more than his words, what he meant. A slight.
Twyning took the hand and gripped it with a firmness characteristic of his handshake.
”Thanks, old man. Thanks awfully. Of course I know what you mean. But after all, look at the thing, eh? I mean to say, you've been here--what--ten or twelve years. Well, I've been over twenty-five.
Natural, eh? And you're doing splendidly. Every one knows that. It's only a question of time. Thanks awfully.” He reached for Sabre's hand again and again gripped it hard.
Sabre went back and sat against his desk. ”What rather got me, you know, coming all of a sudden like that, was that Fortune promised me partners.h.i.+p, twice, quite a bit ago.”
Twyning, who had been speaking with an emotion in consonance with the grip of his hand, said a little blankly, ”Did he? That so?”
”Yes, twice. And this looked like, when you told me--well, like dissatisfaction since, see? Eh?”
Twyning did not take up the point. ”I say, you never told me.”
”I'm telling you now,” Sabre said. And he laughed ruefully. ”It comes to much the same thing--as it turns out.”
”Yes, but still.... I wish we worked in a bit more together, Sabre. I'm always ready to, you know. Let's, shall we?”
Sabre made no reply. Twyning repeated ”Let's” and nodded and left the room. Immediately he opened the door again and reappeared. ”I say, you won't say anything to Jonah, of course?”
Sabre smiled grimly. ”I'm going to.”
Again the darkening. ”Dash it, that's not quite playing the game, is it?”
”Rot, Twyning. Fortune's made me a promise, and I'm going to ask if he has any reason for withdrawing it, that's all. It's nothing to do with your show.”
”You're bound to tell him I've told you.”
”Well, man alive, I'm bound to know, aren't I?”
”Yes--in a way. Oh, well, all right. Remember about working in more together.” He withdrew and closed the door.
Outside the door he clenched his hands. He thought, ”Smack in the eye for you, was it? You'll get a d.a.m.n sight worse smack in the eye one of these days. Dirty dog!”
IV
Immediately the door was closed Sabre went what he would have called ”plug in” to Mr. Fortune; that is to say, without hesitation and without reflection. He went in by the communicating door, first giving a single tap but without waiting for a reply to the tap. Mr. Fortune, presenting a whale-like flank, was at his table going through invoices and making notes in a small black book which he carried always in a tail pocket of his jacket.
”Can I speak to you a minute, Mr. Fortune?”
Mr. Fortune entered a note in the small black book: ”Twenty-eight, sixteen, four.” He placed a broad elastic band round the book and with the dexterity of practice pa.s.sed the book round his bulk and into the tail pocket. He flicked his hands away and extended them for an instant, palms upward, much as a conjurer might to show there was nothing in them. ”Certainly you may speak to me, Sabre.” He performed his neat revolving trick. ”As a matter of fact, I rather wanted to speak to you.”
He pointed across the whale-like front to the ma.s.sive leathern armchair beside his desk.