Mad, call I it; for to define true madness.
What is't, but to be nothing else but mad?
But let that go.
_Hamlet._
After leaving Nina, Jack went to the club, where he found Geoffrey
playing pool with half a dozen others, whose demeanor well indicated the
number of times the lamp had been rubbed for the genius with the tray to
appear. Geoffrey seemed to be in good-humor, but he gave Jack the idea
of playing against time. He strode around the table rapidly as he took
his shots, as if not caring whether he won or lost. The only effect the
liquor seemed to have upon him was to make him grow fierce. Every
movement of his long frame was made with a quick nervous energy,
inspiriting enough to watch, but giving an impression of complete
unrest. He was playing to stave off waking nightmares. Thoughts of his
probable ruin on the following day came to him from time to time--like a
vision of a death's head. The others with him noticed nothing different
in him, but Jack, who was quietly smoking on one of the high seats near
by, saw that he was in a more reckless mood than he had ever seen him
before. He could not help smiling as his friend strode around the table
in his shirt-sleeves, playing with a force that was almost ferocity and
a haste apparently reckless but deadly in the precision that sense of
power, skill, and alcohol gave him. After a while, in a pause, he spoke
to Geoffrey, who at once divined that more trouble of some kind awaited
him.
When they arrived at their chambers, Jack told him briefly of the
journey with Nina for the purpose of getting married in Buffalo, and of
what Nina had just said.
Geoffrey nodded; he was waiting for the something new that would affect
himself--the something he was not prepared for.
"Is that all?" he asked sharply.
"No. That is not all," answered Jack gloomily.
"Go on, then."
"I don't feel as if I could go on," said Jack, not noticing the rough
tone in which he was commanded to proceed. "But I suppose I must. The
fact is, Geoffrey, I found out afterward that I was not married at all
to her, and I never let her know until to-night."
"Is she dead, then?"
Geoffrey looked at him with his brow lowered, his eyes glittering. He
felt like striking Jack.
"Gracious heavens, no! Why should she die?" cried Jack, startled from
his gloom.
"It's enough to kill her," said Geoffrey. His contempt for Jack assisted
the rage he felt against him. He had been drinking steadily all day, and
now could hardly restrain the violent fury that seethed in him. "Go on,
you infernal ass! Dribble it out. Go on."
"I see you feel for her, Geoffrey. I _am_ the biggest fool that ever was
allowed to live."
Then, with his face averted, he told Geoffrey the whole story of the
mistake in Buffalo. His listener watched him, with lips muttering, while
sometimes his teeth seemed to be bared and gleaming.
In this story, Geoffrey at first seemed to see a new danger to himself
and his future prospects. Then it occurred to him that the new
information did not much affect his own position. Two things seemed
certain. One was, that Joseph Lindon would spare no expense to find out
where Jack and Nina had gone and to be fully informed of everything that
happened. Secondly, that Nina could never be able to show any legal
marriage prior to the one now intended. This meant that Nina and Jack
could not return to Toronto. A vague idea went through Geoffrey's head
at this time.
When Jack had finished his story Geoffrey was calm in appearance. But
his eyes were half closed, which gave him a cunning look.
Then he talked with Jack, so as to impress upon his mind the fact that
it would be impossible for them ever to visit Canada again.
"Yes," said Jack. "Unless you come out to visit us you will never see us
again. I could never make it right with the Toronto people. I will never
again be able to return to Toronto; that's clear."
When he proposed to make arrangements as to the best ways and means of
leaving Toronto, Geoffrey said he must have time to think over
everything. It was late. It would be better to sleep, if possible, and
arrange things further to-morrow. They parted for the night, having
settled that Jack was to draw out his money at once.
On the next morning Geoffrey ascertained that he was ruined. The stock
that he held in the Canadian railway had gone down beyond redemption as
far as he was concerned. He had mortgaged everything he possessed,
raised money on indorsed notes, raised it in every shape and way within
his means, but he had been unable to tide over the depression. A further
call had been made for margins, and he had not another cent to fill the
gap and all his stock passed to other hands. He drank steadily all day
and even carried a flask with him into the office, which he soon
emptied. Hampstead was not by any means the same man now that he was
three weeks previously. He looked sufficiently like his right self to
escape a betrayal, but the liquor and the thought of his losses raged
within him, and all the time an idea was insinuating itself into his
frenzied brain. He had gone so far as carefully to consider many schemes
to avert his ruin which he would not have countenanced before. His
weakened judgment now placed Jack before him as one who conspired
against his peace. He cunningly concealed it, but to him the mere sight
of Jack was like a red flag to a bull. Just when all his plans were
demolished, all his hopes gone, his entire ruin an accomplished fact,
this fool came in to add fuel to the fire that burned him. In this way
he regarded his old friend.
While in this state and while at his work in the bank the next morning
he said to Jack, who occupied the next stall to him, that he had hit
upon the best way for him and Nina to depart. It would be better for
Jack to go away without giving any notice to the bank. The notice would
be of no use if he did so, because, if he must go away the next morning,
the notice would only raise inquiry. He told Jack to slip out and go
down to the docks and find if there would be any sailing vessels leaving
for American ports the next day. Jack could depart on a schooner; Nina
could make some excuse at home and follow him by steamer.
Jack liked this proposal. He would have one more sail on old Ontario
before he left it forever. He skipped out of the side door, and soon
found a vessel at Yonge Street wharf that would finish taking in its
cargo of fire-bricks and start for Oswego at noon the following day. He
tried to arrange with the mate to go as a passenger, but the captain was
going to take his wife with him on this trip, so Jack, if he wanted to
go, would be obliged to sleep in the forecastle. He did not mind this
much, and engaged to go "before the mast."
In the afternoon he told Nina about his intentions, and explained that
she could take the steamer to Oswego on the day after he left, so that
she would probably arrive there about the same time. He had drawn all
his money out of the bank and was now ready to go. Nina said she could
arrange about her own departure, and after they had made a few other
plans as to her course in case she got to Oswego first, Jack kissed her
and tried to cheer her from the depression in which she had sunk, and
then he departed.
All that day Geoffrey grew more moody and further from his right self.
To drown the recollections of his ruin and his other worries, he went on
drinking steadily. The thought came to him again and again that his
marriage with Margaret was now almost impossible. He knew that, as a
married man, he could never live on his bank salary alone, and the
capital to speculate with was entirely gone. What made him still more
frenzied was the fact that he knew that this stock he had bought was
bound to re-establish itself in a very short time. But, for the moment,
every person else had gone mad. He alone was sane. Public lunacy about
this stock had robbed him of his fifteen thousand dollars. He drank
still harder when he thought this, and although he did not get drunk,
he got what can be described vaguely as "queer," and the next stage of
his queerness was that he became convinced that the public had in a
manner robbed him, and that society owed him something. When a man's
brain is in this state, he is in a dangerous condition.
Jack wished heartily that they should dine together, as this was his
last evening in Toronto, but Geoffrey avoided doing so. He hated the
sight of Jack, but he carefully concealed the aversion which he felt. He
made an excuse and absented himself until nine or ten o'clock, and
during this time he wandered about the city and continued drinking. He
had not seen Margaret for over two weeks. Everything had been going
wrong with him. Besides his own losses, he would be heavily in debt to
the men who had "backed" his paper and who would have to pay for him.
Jack found him in their chambers when he returned for his last night at
the old rooms, and there they sat and talked things over. Geoffrey tried
to brace himself up for the conversation with a bottle of brandy which
he had just uncorked, but it was quite impossible for him to pretend to
be as cheerful as he wished.
Jack thought he was depressed, and said:
"I am sorry to see you in such bad spirits to-night, Geoffrey."
"Well, it's a bad business," said Hampstead, sententiously, looking
moodily at the floor. As this might mean anything, Jack thought that
Geoffrey was taking his departure to heart. He had every right to think
that Hampstead would miss him.
It was now getting late, and Jack arose and laid his hand on Geoffrey's
shoulder: "Don't be cut up, old man," he said; "I have been a fool, but
I am glad that I know it and am able to make things as right as they can
be made. I know you feel for Nina and me, but you will get some other
fellow to room with you and--"
During the conversation Hampstead had drunk a good deal of the brandy.
The kind words that Jack was speaking filled him with a fury which
lunatic cunning could scarcely conceal. The idea in his mind had been
settling itself into a resolve, and at this moment it did finally settle
itself. He shook Jack's hand off his shoulder as he arose, glared at him
for an instant, and then turned off to his bedroom. "Good night," he
said over his shoulder. "It's late. I'm off." Then he entered his
bedroom, shut the door, and bolted it.
As he went, Jack looked at his retreating form with tears standing in
his eyes.
"I never," he said, "saw Geoffrey show any emotion before. I never felt
quite sure whether he cared much about me until now. And now I know that
he does. I hate to see him so cut up about it; but it is comforting to
think, on going away, that he really liked me all this time."
Jack was a clean-souled fellow. He was one of those who, no matter how
uproarious or slangy they are, always give the idea that they are
gentlemen. With this nature a certain softness of heart must go. He
stood watching the door through which Geoffrey had passed, and he
thought drearily that never again would they have such good times
together, and that most likely they would never meet again. He thought
of Geoffrey's winning ways, of his prowess, of his strength, his
stature, his handsome face, and his devil-may-care manner. He thought of
their companionship, the incidents, and even dangers they had had
together. He thought of the way Geoffrey had done his work that night on
the yacht when returning from Charlotte. He stood thinking of all these
things with an aching heart. As he turned away sadly, his heart full of
grief at parting, he burst out with "Darned if I don't love that man,"
and he closed his door quickly, as if to shut out the world from
witnessing a weakness.
On the inner side of Geoffrey's bedroom door there was something else
going on, which represented a very different train of thought.
Geoffrey, after bolting his door, went to his dressing-case and took
from it a pair of scissors and a threaded needle. Then he took an old
waistcoat and cut the lining out of it. Then he took a second old
waistcoat and sewed the pieces of lining against the inside of it, and
also ran stitches down the middle of each piece after it was sewed on.
Thus he had a waistcoat with four long pockets on the inside--two on
each side of it, all open at the top.
When this was done he rolled into bed, where Nature hastened to restore
herself.
Before breakfast in the morning, Jack hailed a cab and took his two
valises to the Yacht Club beside the water's edge, and left them in his
locked cupboard there. He only intended to take this amount of luggage
with him. The rest of his things could come on when Geoffrey packed up
and forwarded his share of their joint museum and library. Geoffrey did
not turn up at breakfast. He breakfasted on a cup of strong coffee and
brandy at a restaurant, and went to the bank early.
Mr. St. George Le Mesurier Hector Northcote, commonly called "Sappy" in
the bank, was a younger son of a long-drawn-out race. He had been sent
out to make his fortune in the colonies, and he had progressed so far
toward affluence that, in eight years of "beastly servitude, you know,"
he had attained the proud position of discount clerk at the Victoria
Bank, and it did not seem probable that his abilities would be ever
recognized to any further extent. The great scope of his intelligence
was shown in the variety of wearing apparel he was able to choose, all
by himself, and he was the showman, the dude, the _incroyable_ of the
Victoria Bank. When he met a man for the first time he weighed him
according to the merits of the garments he wore. He met Geoffrey as he
came into the bank this morning.
"My deah fellah," he said, "where did you get that dreadful waistcoat?"
"None of your business, Sappy. You used to wear one yourself when they
were in fashion. I remember your rushing off to get one from the same
piece when you first saw this one."
Mr. St. George Le Mesurier Hector Northcote had a weak child's voice,
which he cultivated because it separated him from the common herd--most
effectually. It made all ordinary people wish to kick him every time he
opened his mouth. He liked to be thought to have ideas about art, and he
talked sweetly about the furniture of "ma mothah" (my mother.)
Geoffrey walked past this specimen with but little ceremony. The brandy
and coffee and another brandy without coffee had succeeded in putting
him into just the same state in which he had gone to bed on the previous
night. He could talk to any person and could do his work, but fumes of
alcohol and abandonment of recklessness had for a time driven out all
the morality he ever possessed; and where some ideas of justice had
generally reigned there flourished, in the fumes of the liquor which he
had drunk, noxious weedy outgrowths of a debased intelligence unchecked
by the self-respect of civilization. To-day, he was, to himself, the
victim of a public that had robbed him. Society owed him a debt.
They all went to work in the usual way. About a quarter-past eleven
o'clock Jack put his head to Geoffrey's wicket and they whispered
together:
Jack said, "Time for me to be off?"
"Yes, just leave everything as if you were coming back. If you put away
anything, or close the ledger, they may ask where you are before you get
fairly off. By the way, how are you carrying your money?"
"By Jove! I forgot that," said Jack, "or I might have made the package
smaller by exchanging for larger bills. It makes a terrible 'wollage' in
my pocket."
Geoffrey stepped back a moment and picked two American bills for
one-thousand dollars each from a package of fifty of them lying beside
him.
"Here," he said. "Take these two and pin them in the watch-pocket of
your waistcoat. Don't give me back your money here. Just run up to our
chambers and leave your two thousand under my bed-clothes. I don't want
any one to see you paying me the money here, or they will think I
connived at your going. I can get it during the afternoon and make my
cash all right."
Jack did not quite see the necessity of this, but he had not time to
think it out, and even if he had, he would have done what Geoffrey told
him.
"All right," he said, "thank you. That will make two 'one-thousands' and
seven 'one hundreds,' and the rest small, for immediate use."
"Very well. Go into the passage, now, and wait at the side door. I will
come out and say good-by to you."
Jack took his hat and sauntered out into the passage.
In a minute Geoffrey, with his hands in his pockets, strolled to the
side door.
"Good-by, Jack," he said hastily. "When your schooner sails past the
foot of Bay Street here, just get up on the counter and wave your
handkerchief so that I may see the last of you."
"All right, dear old man. I'll not forget to take my last look at the
old Vic, and to do as you say. I must run now, and leave the two
thousand in your bed, and then get on board. Good-by. God bless you!"
Geoffrey sauntered back to his stall and took a drain at a flask of
brandy to keep off the chill he felt for a moment, and to brace himself
up generally.
Jack hurried off to the chambers, counted out the two thousand dollars
which he had wished to get rid of, and after taking a last look at the
old rooms, he hurried to the Yacht Club. Here he put the valises into
his own skiff after changing his good clothes for the old sailing
clothes already described. Then, under an old soft-felt hat with holes
in the top, he rowed down to the schooner, threw his valises on board,
and climbed over the side. He let his skiff go adrift. He had no further
use for it. There were some stone-hookers at the neighboring dock. He
called to the men on one of them and said, "There's a boat for you!"
Then he dropped down the forecastle ladder with his luggage.
His arrival on board was none too early, for the covers were off the
sails and the tug was coming alongside to drag the vessel away from the
wharf, and start her on her way with the east wind blowing to take her
out of the bay. The tug was towing her toward the west channel as they
passed the different streets in front of the city. At Bay Street, Jack
left off helping to make canvas for a minute, and, running to the
counter, sprang up on the bulwarks and waved his handkerchief to
somebody who, he knew, was watching through the windows of the Victoria
Bank.
There was nothing to detain the schooner now. The wind was from the
east, and consequently dead ahead for the trip, but it was a good fresh
working breeze, and Geoffrey, when he saw how things looked on the
schooner, knew that it had fairly started on its passage to Oswego.
He glanced around him to make assurance doubly sure, and then he divided
the pile of forty-eight (formerly fifty) one-thousand-dollar bills into
four thin packages. These he slipped hurriedly into the four long
pockets which he had made in the waistcoat the previous night. He then
buttoned up the waistcoat, and from the even distribution of the bills
upon his person it was impossible to see any indication of their
presence.
When this was done and he had surveyed himself carefully, he took
another pull at the flask on general principles and proceeded to take
further steps. He might as well have left the liquor alone, because his
nerve, once he commenced operations, was like iron.
He banged about some drawers, as if he were looking for something, and
then called out:
"Jack?"
No answer.
"Jack?"
Still no answer.
The ledger-keeper from A to M, who occupied the stall beyond Jack's,
then growled out:
"What's the matter with you?"
"Where's Jack?"
"I don't know. He asked me to look after his ledger for a moment, and
then went out. He has been out for over an hour, and if the beggar
thinks I'm going to be skipping round to look up his confounded ledger
all day he's mistaken. I'll give him a piece of my mind when he comes
in."
"A to M" went on growling and sputtering, like a leaky shower-bath.
"That's all very well," said Geoffrey; "but you fellows are playing a
trick on me, and I don't scare worth a cent."
Everybody could hear this conversation. Geoffrey then stepped on a stool
and leaned over the partition, smiling, and seized the hard-working
receiving-teller by the hair.
"Come, you beggar, I tell you I don't scare. Just hand over the money.
Really, it's a very poor kind of a joke."
"What's a poor kind of a joke? Seizing me by the hair?"
Geoffrey looked at him smilingly, as if he did not believe him and still
thought there had been a plan to abstract the money and frighten him.
"Well, I don't care much personally; but that packet of fifty thousand
is gone, and if any fellow is playing the fool he had better bring it
back."
Several of the clerks now came round to his wicket. This sort of talk
sounds very unpleasant in a bank.
"Where did you leave the bills?" they asked.
"Right here," said Geoffrey, laying his hand on a little desk close
beside the wicket, opening into the box in which Jack had worked.
"Well, you had better report the thing at once," said several, who were
looking on with long faces.
"I shall, right straight," said Geoffrey energetically. His face bore an
admirable expression of consternation, checked by the _sang froid_ of an
innocent bank-clerk. He strode off into the manager's room.
"Excuse me for interrupting you, sir. I thought it was a hoax at first,
but it looks very much as if fifty thousand dollars had been taken from
my box."
"What, stolen!"
"Looks like it--very. If you would kindly step this way, sir, I will
explain what I know about it."
Geoffrey then showed the manager where the bills had been laid, and did
not profess to be able to tell anything more.
"Mr. Northcote, ring up the chief of police, and tell me when he is
there," said the manager. "Where is Mr. Cresswell?"
No answer.
"Does anybody know where Mr. Cresswell is?"
Ledger-keeper from A to M then said that Mr. Cresswell went out over an
hour ago, and had asked him to look after his ledger for five minutes.
Mr. Cresswell had not returned.
The manager walked into Jack's box and looked around him. Everything was
lying about as if he had just stopped working, and this, to the
manager's mind, seemed to give the thing a black look. It seemed as if
Jack, if he had made off with the money, had left things in this way as
a blind.
The telephone was ready now, and the manager requested the chief of
police to send a couple of his best detectives at once. Only one was
available at first. This man, Detective Dearborn, appeared in five
minutes, and was made acquainted with all the known circumstances. When
this was done, fully two hours had elapsed since Jack's departure, and
still he had not turned up.
Detective Dearborn was a man with large, usually mild, brown eyes. There
was nothing in the upper part of his face to be remarked except general
immobility of countenance. The lower part of his face, however, was
suggestive. His lower jaw protruded beyond the upper. Whether this means
anything in the human being may be doubted, but one involuntarily got
the idea that if this man once "took hold," nothing short of red-hot
irons would burn him off.
He took a careful, mild survey of the premises, listened to everything
that was said, remarked that the package could not have been taken from
the public passageway if left in the place indicated, looked over Jack's
abandoned stall, asked a few questions from the manager, and, like a
sensible man, came to the conclusion that Jack had taken the money.
He walked into the manager's room and asked him several questions about
Jack's habits and his usual pursuits. Geoffrey was called in to assist
at this. Yes, he could take the detective to Jack's room. Jack had no
habits that cost much money. "Had he been speculating at all?" Geoffrey
thought not, although some time ago Mr. Cresswell had said that he was
"in a little spec.," and hoped to make something. Did not know what the
"spec." was.
"May I ask," said Dearborn, "when you last spoke to Mr. Cresswell?"
"We spoke to each other for a minute just before he went out. He asked
me if I was going to the Dusenalls' 'shine' to-night. I said I was. Then
he spoke about several young ladies of our acquaintance, and other
things which had no reference to this matter."
"Was the lost money in the place you say at that time?"
"Yes. I remember having my hand on the packet while I spoke to him."
"May I ask if you at any time during the morning left your stall?"
"Yes, I did, once. I went out as far as the side door for an instant
shortly after Mr. Cresswell went out."
"What for?"
"Well," said Geoffrey, smiling, "I was thinking of boating this
afternoon, and I wanted to see how the sky promised for the afternoon."
The mild eyes looked at Geoffrey with uncomfortable mildness at this
answer. It might be all right, but Dearborn thought that this was the
first suspicious sound which he had heard.
"My young gentleman, I'll keep my eye on you," he thought. "That reply
did not sound quite right, and you seem a trifle too unconcerned."
Another detective arrived now, and he was detailed to inform the others
and to watch the railway stations and steamboats. Immediately afterward,
descriptions of Jack flew all over Canada to the many different points
of exit from the country. Had he tried to leave Canada by sail or
steamboat he would have been arrested to a certainty. Geoffrey laughed
in his sleeve as he thought of the way he had sent Jack off in a
schooner--a way that few people would dream of taking, and yet, perhaps,
the safest way of all, as schooners could not, in the ordinary course of
things, be watched by the detectives. But if the news got beyond police
circles that Jack had absconded with money, or if it should be
discovered in any way that he had gone on the schooner to Oswego--if
this were published--Joseph Lindon might become alarmed, and prevent his
daughter from going to Oswego also. Even the news of Jack's departure
for parts unknown might make him suspicious. With this in view he
immediately said to the manager and the detective:
"I would like to make a suggestion, if there be no objection."
"Certainly, Mr. Hampstead. We will be glad to listen to what you have to
say."
"Of course, I can not think that Mr. Cresswell took the money," said
Geoffrey. "But I think if complete secrecy were ordered, both in the
bank and elsewhere, while every endeavor was being made at discovery,
the detectives would have a better chance of success, on whatever theory
they may work. Possibly the money may be recovered before many hours are
over, and in that case the bank might wish to hush the matter up
quietly. Prematurely advertising a thing like this often does harm; and
there can be no question about the interests of the bank in the matter."
"I will act upon that suggestion at once," said the manager. "In the
mean time, you will go, please, with the detective and admit him to Mr.
Cresswell's rooms, and see what is to be seen there. I will give the
strictest orders that nothing of this is to be told outside by the
officials or police."
Orders were delivered to all the detectives to give no items to
newspaper reporters, and the chance of Nina's getting away on the
following morning seemed secured. Geoffrey laughed to himself as he
thought he had crushed the last adder that could appear to strike him.
He let Mr. Dearborn into Jack's room. Everything was in confusion.
Bureau drawers were lying open, and Jack's valises were gone. Dearborn
saw at a glance that Cresswell had fled, and he lost no time, but turned
on his heel immediately, thanked Hampstead, and rattled down-stairs.
Geoffrey first ascertained that he was really gone, and then went back,
took out the two thousand dollars that Jack had put under his
bed-clothes, and, hastily taking the forty-eight stolen bills from the
interior of his waistcoat, he stuffed the whole amount into an old
Wellington boot that was hanging on a nail in a closet. Out of Jack's
two thousand he put several bills in his pocket to pay for his evening's
amusements. He then returned to the bank. It will be seen that his
object in not taking this two thousand from Jack at the bank was that he
could not safely conceal such a large package on his person, and he
could not put it with his cash, because, in case his cash was examined,
it would be found to contain two thousand dollars too much, which would
cause inquiry.
The manager while brooding over the event, and asking questions, soon
found out that the missing bills had been all in one deposit. The
receiving teller had taken them in the day before. The item was looked
into and it was noted that this was a deposit of the Montreal Telegraph
Company. On inquiry it was found to be a balance due from the Western
Union Telegraph Company in the States for exchanges. The Montreal
Telegraph Company had received the money from New York by express, and
to guard against loss the Western Union had taken the precaution to
write by mail to the company at Toronto giving the number of each bill
in full, and saying that all the bills were those of the United States
National Bank at New York. In two hours, therefore, Dearborn was
supplied with the numbers of all the bills. Geoffrey was startled at
this turn of events. But he thought it did not matter much. He could
slip over to the States in a few months and get rid of the whole of the
money in different places.
While all this internal commotion was going on at the Victoria Bank,
Nina was paying a little visit to her father's office. She alighted from
an equipage every part of which, including coachman, footman, horses,
and liveries, had been imported from England. The coachman and footman
did not wear their hats on one side or cross their legs and talk affably
to each other as they seem to do in the American cities. Joseph Lindon
was, in effect, perfectly right when he said they were the "real
thing"--"first chop."
Nina swept through the outer office, looking more charming than ever.
After she had passed in, one of the clerks, called Moses, indulged in
the vulgar pantomime peculiar to clerks of low degree. He placed both
hands on his heart, gasped, and rolled back against the wall to indicate
that he was irretrievably smashed by her appearance.
Her father received her gladly.
"Ah!" he said, "you have condescended to pay me a visit, my fine lady!
It's money you're after. I can see it in your eye. Now, how much, my
dear, will this little visit cost me, I wonder? Just name your figure,
my dear, and strike it rather high." Mr. Lindon was in a remarkably
good humor.
"No, father, I did not come altogether for money. I came to know if I
could go over to Oswego for a week. Louisa Dallas, who stayed with us
last winter, wants me to go over."
"Certainly, my dear, you can do anything you please--in reason. I
thought the Dallases lived in Rochester?"
"So they did; but they have moved. Well, that is all right. Now, if you
have any money to throw away upon me I will try to do you credit with
it. Don't I always do you credit?"
"Credit? You are the handsomest girl I ever saw. Do me credit? Why, of
course, and always will. Come and kiss me, my dear. I declare you would
charm the heart of a wheel-barrow. Now, how much would you like this
morning? Strike it high, girl. Understand, you can have all the money
you want. You will go to Oswego and see your friends and have a good
time. Perhaps they won't have much money to throw away, but don't let
that stand in the way. Trot out the whole of them and set up the entire
business yourself. Take them all down to Watkin's Glen, or some place
else. There's nothing to do in Oswego. You can't spend half the money I
can give you. Why, dash it, I cleared fifty thousand dollars before
lunch-time to-day, and now how much will you have of it?"
"Well, there's a little bill at Murray's for odds and ends."
"How much?"
"Oh, five or six hundred, perhaps."
"Blow five or six hundred! Is that all the money you can spend? Of
course you are the best-dressed woman in town, but you must do better
than this. I tell you you have just got to sweep all these other women
away like flies before you. I'll clothe you in gold if you say the
word. Five or six hundred! Rubbish!"
He struck a bell, and the impressionable Moses appeared.
"How much will you have?" he said to Nina, smiling. He loved to try and
stagger her with his magnificence.
"I suppose Murray ought to be paid and a few other bills lying about."
Nina thought this would be a good chance for Jack, and she said to
herself she would strike it high.
"I suppose a thousand dollars would do," she said, rather timidly;
adding, "with Murray and all."
"Damn Murray and all!" cried Mr. Lindon, in a burst of good nature. "You
sha'n't pay any of them.--Moses, write Miss Lindon a check for a couple
of thousand, and bring it here."
While Moses wrote the check out, Lindon, with a display of affection he
rarely showed, drew Nina down upon his knee.
"How did you make so much money to-day, father?" she asked.
"Oh, you don't know anything about such matters. Yesterday I bought the
stock of a Canadian railway. At ten o'clock this morning it took a
sudden rise because I let people know I was buying. I got a lot of it
before I let them know, and then up she went, steadily, the whole
morning. At twelve o'clock I had made at least fifty thousand, and by
nightfall I may have made a hundred thousand. I don't know how it stands
just now, and I don't much care."
This was the identical stock Hampstead had been unable to retain. If he
could have held on a few hours longer he would have made more honestly
on this day than he had stolen at the same hour.
The check was signed and handed to Nina. She put it in her shopping-bag
and took her father's head between her hands and kissed his capable old
face with a warmth that surprised him a little. To her this was a final
good-by.
"You're a good old daddy to me," she said, feeling her heart rise at the
thought of leaving him forever. She ran off then to the door to conceal
her feelings.
"Just wait," he said, "till we go to England soon, and then I'll show
you what's what."
She made an effort to seem bright, and cast back at him a glance like
bright sun through mists, as she said:
"Of course--yes. We must not forget 'the dook.'"
She cashed the check with satisfaction, knowing that it took Jack a long
time to save two thousand dollars.
When she rolled down to the wharf the next day in the Lindon barouche,
the officials on the steamboat's deck were impressed with her
magnificence and beauty.
For most men, nothing could be more sweetly beautiful than her
appearance, as she went carefully along the gangway to the old
Eleusinian, and there was quite a competition between the old captain
and the young second officer as to who should show her more civility.