Part 21 (1/2)
”High C Lady; nightingale; your little Donna's mother--Rantzau, isn't it?”
”Hermansen and Mrs. Rantzau?” Holm looked at him earnestly.
”Aha, had an eye on her yourself, what? Well, you've had some experience of widows, so you're not a new hand at the business.”
”What's all this nonsense you've got hold of to-day, Vindt?”
”Why, I'm sorry to crush the budding flower of love within your heart, but so it is. You've always come off second-best with Hermansen--and now he's snapped up Mrs. Rantzau under your nose. A marriage has been arranged--etc. etc.”
Holm's face was flushed--no doubt with his efforts to open the bottle.
”Come along!” said Vindt. ”What about that little drink? I'm sure I want something to console me.”
Holm could not get the cork out. He sat down, and was unusually silent.
Vindt began to feel conscience-stricken. Surely Holm had not been in earnest, then?
”Holm! You don't mean to say you're--you're....”
”Hurt, you mean? No, no, my boy--but I've been had all the same....
Well, never mind. What with the Spaniard, and now the widow, I should say he'd soon find he'd got his 'hands full.'”
”Well, here's to the happy pair!”
”Oh, by all means. But can you tell me, Vindt, how he managed it? I'd give five bob to have heard him in the act. Hermansen proposing....”
”Oh, that's easy enough. This is the style.” Vindt b.u.t.toned up his coat, put his stick under his arm and held his hands behind his back.
”Honoured Madam, allow me to draw upon your indulgence to the extent of craving your protection. I am not altogether a worthless doc.u.ment, have never before been discounted for anyone's account, but have lain untouched as a sole bill of exchange in my portfolio. Having ascertained that you had established yourself here, I ventured, honoured Madam, to apply to you, with a view to learn how far you might be disposed to open a joint account, free of all commission, to our mutual advantage.”
”Bravo, Vindt! I'll take my oath it's the first time in his life he's ever done anything free of all commission--poor devil, I declare I'm almost sorry for him myself.”
They talked over the affair of the engagement for some time, and Holm grew so thoroughly cheerful after a while that Vindt was convinced his heart was not involved.
”Holm, will you do me a favour?” Vindt judged that Holm was now in the best of tempers, and proposed to utilise the opportunity. He was anxious to lay hands on a couple of hundred pounds. It was worth trying at any rate.
”Well, what is it?”
”Give me your signature on the back of a piece of paper, that's all.
A couple of hundred.”
”My dear Vindt, I should be sorry to lose an old friend like you.”
”Lose an old friend?”
”Why, yes. You see, I've had some experience of backing bills. Take a couple of instances out of many. You remember young Lieberg? Smart, well-got-up young fellow, with a taste for the good things of life, but a trifle thin in the wearing parts. I backed a bill for him, and we were first-rate friends. At the first renewal I had to remind him, with all respect, of the paper's existence, and he was mortally offended--although I offered to lend him interest and payment. And in the end I had to pay up myself. Well, I thought after that he'd look on me as his best friend. Whereas now, when I meet him in the street, he cuts me dead. That's what you get for it!
”Then there was Kautz, the s.h.i.+powner. He went bankrupt, as you know, and let me in for 800, but in spite of that I signed, and helped him to come to an arrangement. A very nice little piece of business it turned out for him, for the year after he was a richer man than he'd ever been before, and he gave a thundering big party, invited all the town--excepting me!”
”My dear Holm, if it ever should happen to me, I'd take care you were invited too.”