Part 38 (1/2)
”Supposing,” David said, ”the shares had risen and were worth two dollars to-day, you would not in that case, I presume, have honoured me with this visit?”
”Certainly not,” she replied.
”I did not sell those shares to your father as an act of philanthropy,”
he continued. ”He asked me to show him a speculation, and I showed him this. Those shares, so far as I know, are as likely to be worth five times their value next week, or nothing at all. I am a very large holder, and it seemed to me that it would be a reasonable act of prudence to sell a few of them at a price which showed me a small margin of profit.”
”Profit?” she repeated wonderingly. ”Are you in need of profit?”
”It is the poison of wealth,” he observed. ”One is always trying to add to what one has.”
She turned her head and looked at him intently. For a moment she was almost startled. There was something unreal in the sound of his words.
Something that was almost a foreboding chilled her.
”Mr. Thain,” she said calmly.
”Yes?”
”Had you any reason--any special reason, I mean--for selling those shares to my father?”
His face was inscrutable.
”What reason should I have, Lady Let.i.tia?”
”I can't imagine any,” she replied, ”and yet--for a moment I thought that you were talking artificially. I probably did you an injustice.
I am sorry.”
David's teeth came together. There was lightning in his eyes as he glanced down through the trees towards Vont's little cottage.
”Don't apologise too soon, Lady Let.i.tia,” he warned her.
She raised her eyebrows.
”I am not accustomed to think the worst of people,” she said. ”I can scarcely picture to myself any person, already inordinately wealthy, singling out my father as a victim for his further cupidity. Let me return to the question which I have already asked you. Would you care, without letting my father know of this visit and my request, to return his cheque or promissory note, or whatever it was, in exchange for these shares?”
”I am not even sure, Lady Let.i.tia,” he reminded her, after a moment's pause, ”that your father wishes this.”
”You can, I think, take my word that it would be a relief to him,” she a.s.serted.
He pondered for a few moments. The light through the trees seemed to be burning brighter in Vont's sitting room.
”I will be frank with you, Lady Let.i.tia,” he said. ”There has been no increase in the value of these shares. The news which I have expected concerning them has not arrived. The transaction, therefore, is one which at the present moment would probably entail a loss. Do you wish me to make your father a present of twenty or thirty thousand pounds?”
She rose deliberately to her feet and shook the few grains of cigarette ash from her dress. The cigarette itself she threw into a laurel bush.
”I understand,” she remarked, ”what you implied when you said that women did not understand business.”
Her tone was unhurried, her manner expressed no indignation. Yet as she strolled towards the gate, David felt the colour drained from his cheeks, felt the wicker sides of his chair crash in the grip of his fingers. He rose and hurried after her.