Part 26 (2/2)

”Fifty 5 5 per cent. New South American Rubber Syndicate;

”Fifty 10 10 per cent. B Preference Addison Railway, Nicaragua;

”One hundred 1 4 per cent. Welbeck Mutual a.s.surance Society.

”Would you recommend the holder to sell out at present prices? And should I be justified in accepting these shares as security for an immediate loan of five hundred?--Faithfully yours,

”HORATIO BYSSHE WADDINGTON.”

He was expecting Elise for tea at four o'clock on Wednesday, and Messrs.

Lawson and Rutherford's reply reached him very opportunely that afternoon.

”Dear Sir,--_Re_ your inquiry in your letter of the twenty-fifth instant, as to the current value of 5 per cent. New South American Rubber Syndicate Shares, 10 per cent. B Preference Addison Railway, and 4 per cent. Welbeck Mutual a.s.surance Society, respectively, we beg to inform you that these stocks are seriously depreciated, and we doubt whether at the present moment the holder would find a purchaser. We certainly cannot advise you to accept them as security for the sum you name.--We are, faithfully,

”Lawson & Rutherford.”

It was clear that poor Elise--who could never have had any head for business--was deceived as to the value of her securities. It might even be that with regard to all three of them she might have to cut her losses and estimate her income minus the dividends accruing from this source. But that only made it the more imperative that she should have at least a thousand pounds tucked snugly away in some safe investment.

Nothing short of the addition of fifty pounds to her yearly income would enable Elise to pay her way. The dear woman's affairs ought to stand on a sound financial basis; and Mr. Waddington asked himself this question: Was he prepared to put them there? All that Elise could offer him, failing her depreciated securities, was the reversion of a legacy of five hundred pounds promised to her in her aunt's will. She had spoken very hopefully of this legacy. Was he prepared to fork out a whole five hundred pounds on the offchance of Elise's aunt dying within a reasonable time and making no alteration in her will? In a certain contingency he _was_ prepared. He was prepared to do all that and more for Elise. But it was not possible, it was not decent to state his conditions to Elise beforehand, and in any case Mr. Waddington did not state them openly as conditions to himself. He allowed his mind to be muzzy on this point. He had no doubt whatever about his pa.s.sion, but he preferred to contemplate the possibility of its satisfaction through a decent veil of muzziness. When he said to himself that he would like to know where he stood before committing himself, it was as near as he could get to clarity and candour.

And when he wrote to Elise that his promise was conditional he really did mean that the loan would depend on the value of the securities offered; a condition that his integrity could face, a condition that, as things stood, he had a perfect right to make. While, all the time, deep inside him was the knowledge that, if Elise gave herself to him, he would not ask for security--he would not make any conditions at all. He saw Elise, tender and yielding, in his arms; he saw himself, tender and powerful, stooping over her, and he thought, with a qualm of disgust: ”I wouldn't touch her poor little legacy.”

Meanwhile he judged it well to let the correspondence pa.s.s, like any other business correspondence, through his secretary's hands. It was well to let Barbara see that his relations with Mrs. Levitt were on a strictly business footing, that he had nothing to hide. It was well to have copies of the letters. It was well--Mr. Waddington's instinct, not his reason, told him it WA well--to have a trustworthy witness to all these transactions. A witness who understood the precise nature of his conditions, in the event, the highly unlikely event, of trouble with Elise later on. (It was almost as if, secretly, he had a premonition.) Also, when his conscience reproached him, as it did, with making conditions, with asking the dear woman for security, he was able to persuade himself that he didn't really mean it, that all this was clever camouflage designed to turn Barbara's suspicions, if she ever had any, off the scent. And at the same time he was not sorry that Barbara should see him in his role of generous benefactor and shrewd adviser.

”I needn't tell you, Barbara, that all this business is strictly private. As my confidential secretary, you have to know a great many things it wouldn't do to have talked about. You understand?”

”Perfectly.”

She understood, too, that it was an end of the compact with Ralph Bevan.

She must have foreseen this affair when she said to him there would be things she simply couldn't tell. Only she had supposed they would be things she would see, reward of clear eyesight, not things she would be regularly let in for knowing.

And her clear eyes saw through the camouflage. She had a suspicion.

”I don't see,” she said, ”why you should have to go without your rent just because Mrs. Levitt doesn't want to pay it.”

She was sorry for Waddy. He might be ever so wise about Mrs. Levitt's affairs; but he was a perfect goose about his own. No wonder f.a.n.n.y had asked her to take care of him.

”I've no doubt,” he said, ”she _wants_ to pay it; but she's a war widow, Barbara, and she's hard up. I can't rush her for the rent.”

”She's no business to rush you for trellis work and water pipes you didn't order.”

”Well--well,” he couldn't be angry with the child. She was so loyal, so careful of his interests. And he couldn't expect her to take kindly to Elise. There would be a natural jealousy. ”That's Palmer and Hoskins's mistake. I can't haggle with a lady, Barbara. _n.o.blesse oblige_.” But he winced under her clear eyes.

She thought: ”How about the fifty and the five hundred? At this rate _n.o.blesse_ might _oblige_ him to do anything.”

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