Part 16 (1/2)

”Why?” Miss Strong tapped the toe of her slipper against the floor.

”He wasn't compelled to blurt out his affairs to all the world.”

Miss Wentworth shrugged her shoulders.

”Certainly not--if I am all the world. Are you also all the world?

From what I gathered he did not make much of a confidante of you.”

”Well, he wasn't forced to!” Suddenly Miss Strong made a wholly irrational, but not wholly unnatural, movement in the direction of Miss Wentworth's chair. She placed her hand upon that lady's shoulders. And she kissed her twice, first on the lips, then on the brow. And she exclaimed, ”Never mind. I forgive you!”

Miss Wentworth was quite as demure as the occasion required. She surveyed her emotional friend with twinkling eyes.

”Thank you very much indeed, my dear.”

Miss Strong moved restlessly about the room, pa.s.sing, as it seemed, aimlessly from object to object.

”It is strange that he should have kept such news to himself! And not have said a word about it! And now not coming after all!” She turned to Mr. Franklyn. ”I suppose that it is all quite true? That you have not been building up my hopes simply to dash them down again?”

”I have given you an accurate statement of the actual position of affairs when prices were made up for the day, as you may easily prove yourself by a reference to an evening paper.”

With her hands Miss Strong pushed back her hair from her temples.

”After all he had lost in Eries----”

Mr. Franklyn interposed a question.

”In Eries! Did he lose in Eries?”

”I am afraid he did, heavily. And then, in spite of that, on the same day, to see his way to a quarter of a million!”

”A quarter of a million! Did he mention that precise amount?”

”I think he did,--I feel sure he did. Charlie, didn't you hear him speak of a quarter of a million?”

Miss Wentworth, who from the depths of her easy chair had been regarding the two almost as if they had been studies of interesting, though contrasting, types of human nature, smiled as she replied--

”I believe that I did hear Mr. Paxton make a pa.s.sing and, as it seemed to me, a mysterious allusion to that insignificant sum.”

”Then he must be acquainted with the movements of the markets.” Mr.

Franklyn was the speaker. ”Though I must tell you candidly, Miss Strong, that at present I am very far from being prepared to advise him to hold until his profits reach what Miss Wentworth, in a truly liberal spirit, calls that insignificant sum. As things stand, he can get out with half of it. If he waits for more, he may get nothing.

Indeed, it is an almost vital necessity of the situation that I should see him at once. The shares are in my keeping. Without his direct authority I can do nothing with them. After all, the boom may be but a bubble; it may already have been blown to a bursting-point; in the morning it may have been p.r.i.c.ked. Such things are the commonplaces of the Stock Exchange. In any case, it is absolutely necessary that he should be on the spot, ready, if needful, to take prompt, instant advantage of the turn of the market in whatever direction it may be.

Or, by the time that he does appear upon the scene, his shares may again be unsaleable at twopence apiece, and all his profits may have gone. Now, tell me, do you know where he stayed last night?”

”At Makell's Hotel. He nearly always does stay there when he is in Brighton.”

”It is possible, then, that he is there now; or, at any rate, that they have news of him. I will go at once and inquire.”

Miss Strong made a quick movement towards the speaker.