Part 19 (1/2)
”Oh, but you don't or you won't understand me. What I propose is to found a banking-house, and furnish the capital myself.”
”What!” Mr. Chelm leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. ”This is romance with a vengeance. Would I were twenty-five, and in search of occupation! And what, pray, is to be the name of the new concern?--Harlan and Prime; or Virginia Harlan and Company? I am confident it will be a partners.h.i.+p for life.”
”Francis Prime and Company, of course. I will not submit to be laughed at, Mr. Chelm. This is a serious business matter.”
”Oh, most certainly! Thoroughly business-like in every sense! My dear young lady, if you expect me to preserve my legal gravity you must not be so humorous; it is beyond the self-control of even a fusty conveyancer. And what part in this financial idyl am I expected to play!”
”You are to arrange it all. I am to furnish the money, and remain strictly incognito. That is the first and essential condition I impose.”
”What! Mr. Prime is not to know the name of his benefactress?”
”On no account whatever!”
”He will be sure to search the earth until he finds her.”
”Not if he be made to believe she is ancient and homely. Besides, how is he to know it is a woman?”
”Forgive me, Miss Harlan, but no one except a woman could invent such a project. It fairly takes my breath away. How much of your capital do you propose to embark in the enterprise,--the whole four millions?”
”No, Mr. Chelm, I am not utterly irrational yet. That is one of the points I mean to leave to your discretion. I merely insist that he shall not be scrimped. I do not think, however, that I care to advance over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
”Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars? And still you talk of discretion!”
”Is not that enough?”
”Enough! Why, certainly not. If you are bent upon the plan, at least put it through handsomely, Miss Harlan. Let him have a cool million at once, and be done with it.”
”I know, of course, that this must seem very quixotic to you as a business man, Mr. Chelm,” I continued after a moment's reflection. ”Very likely you think I am merely jesting. But I am not. I am perfectly serious. I want to help Mr. Prime. I was very much interested by what he said, and I believe he is in earnest. The plan that I have just suggested seems to me entirely feasible. Even supposing that I lose a couple of hundred thousand dollars, what then? It is a year's income at the worst; whereas, on the other hand, if the scheme prospers, and he turns out to be”--
”A merchant prince,” interrupted Mr. Chelm. ”Yes, a merchant prince, as I believe he will,”--
”You will be married, and be happy ever after, as in other fairy stories.”
”Nothing of the sort, Mr. Chelm. My conclusion of the affair is much less sentimental. In case events result as I hope and predict, I shall be thankful that I have given him a chance to put his theories into practice. You may remember that he said he had theories regarding the use a rich man should make of his money.”
”It strikes me you are willing to pay pretty dear for the probable value of the information, even if matters turn out as you expect. But the money is yours, Miss Harlan, not mine; and if you are resolved upon being generous in this wholesale way, it is not for me to complain. We lawyers get conservative as we grow older, and any romance that may have been in us dries up, like the sap in trees that have begun to outlast their usefulness. We know how hard it is to earn an honest living; and when we see any one in whom we have an interest developing a taste for imprudent speculations, we instinctively utter a protest. Still, as you say, it is but a year's income; and maybe the cheapest way in the end to teach you reason is to humor this expensive fancy. If the money is lost, you will never miss it; while, a.s.suming that this young man is all your imagination paints him, I know of nothing that would give me greater pleasure than to see you happily married. That is a romance to which I would say 'Amen' with all my heart.”
”Thank you very much, Mr. Chelm. But I will not obtain your connivance on any such terms. If you regard this as other than a purely business enterprise, I warn you that you will be wofully disappointed.”
”I shall have to take my chance of being right, just as you are going to take yours. But come now, since you insist upon my treating this matter seriously, what is it that you wish me to do?”
”Everything, Mr. Chelm.”
”Even to giving away the bride? You must promise me that, eh! Miss Harlan?”
”With pleasure.”
”It is a bargain then. Command my services as you will,--I wish I could say my capital also. But unfortunately I cannot afford to toss away my hundreds of thousands like some people. But that is an aside. Tell me what you wish me to do. I am all ears.”
”To begin with, when Mr. Prime returns on Sat.u.r.day, I should like you to inform him that you happened by chance to mention his predicament to a friend of yours.”
”Of which s.e.x?”