Part 31 (2/2)
I smiled deprecatingly. ”As I seldom read the newspapers, I am not quite sure that they have done justice to my real feelings in the matter.”
The lawyer sitting directly opposite to me, was watching my face intently. ”They quoted you rather freely, sir,” said he. Instinctively I felt that here was a wily person whom it would be difficult to deceive. ”The Count is to be congratulated upon having the good will of so distinguished a gentleman as John Bellamy Smart. It will carry great weight, believe me.”
”Oh, you will find to your sorrow that I cut a very small figure in national politics,” said I. ”Pray do not deceive yourselves.”
”May I offer you a brandy and soda?” asked Mr. Pless, tapping sharply on the table top with his seal ring. Instantly his French valet, still bearing faint traces of the drubbing he had sustained at Britton's hands, appeared in the bedchamber door.
”Thank you, no,” I made haste to say. ”I am on the water wagon.”
”I beg your pardon,” said Mr. Pless in perplexity.
”I am not drinking, Mr. Pless,” I explained.
”Sorry,” said he, and curtly dismissed the man. I had a notion that the great lawyer looked a trifle disappointed. ”I fancy you are wondering why I sent for you, Mr. Smart.”
”I am.”
”Am I to a.s.sume that the newspapers were correct in stating that you mean to support my cause with--I may say, to the full extent of your powers?”
”It depends on circ.u.mstances, Mr. Pless.”
”Circ.u.mstances?” He eyed me rather coldly, as if to say, ”What right have you to suggest circ.u.mstances?”
”Perhaps I should have said that it depends somewhat on what my powers represent.”
He crossed his slender legs comfortably and looked at me with a queer little tilt of his left eyebrow, but with an unsmiling visage. He was too c.o.c.ksure of himself to grant me even so much as an ingratiating smile. Was not I a glory-seeking American and he one of the glorious?
It would be doing me a favour to let me help him.
”I trust you will understand, Mr. Smart, that I do not ask a favour of you, but rather put myself under a certain obligation for the time being. You have become a land-owner in this country, and as such, you should ally yourself with the representative people of our land. It is not an easy matter for a foreigner to plant himself in our midst, so to speak,--as a mushroom,--and expect to thrive on limited favours.
I can be of a.s.sistance to you. My position, as you doubtless know, is rather a superior one in the capital. An unfortunate marriage has not lessened the power that I possess as a birthright nor the esteem in which I am held throughout Europe. The disgraceful methods employed by my former wife in securing a divorce are well known to you, I take it, and I am gratified to observe that you frown upon them. I suppose you know the whole story?”
”I think I do,” said I, quietly. I have never known such consummate self-a.s.surance as the fellow displayed.
”Then you are aware that her father has defaulted under the terms of an ante-nuptial agreement. There is still due me, under the contract, a round million of your exceedingly useful dollars.”
”With the interest to be added,” said the lawyer, thrumming on the chair-arm with his fingers something after the fas.h.i.+on my mother always employs in computing a simple sum in addition.
”Certainly,” said Mr. Pless, sharply. ”Mr. Smart understands that quite clearly, Mr. Schymansky. It isn't necessary to enlighten him.”
The lawyer cleared his throat. I knew him at once for a shyster. Mr.
Pless continued, addressing me.
”Of course he will have to pay this money before his daughter may even hope to gain from me the right to share the custody of our little girl, who loves me devotedly. When the debt is fully liquidated, I may consent to an arrangement by which she shall have the child part of the time at least.”
”It seems to me she has the upper hand of you at present, however,”
I said, not without secret satisfaction. ”She may be in America by this time.”
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