WHAT TIME SHE CHANTED.
Hamlet; iv.--7.
The stock report which caused Fenton such unpleasant sensations was
read that same morning by Mrs. Amanda Welsh Sampson with keen
satisfaction of a sort seldom known to the truly virtuous. Mrs. Sampson
was engaged in financial transactions of which the very magnitude
caused her naive satisfaction, while the possible results made her
bosom glow with unwonted emotion. Mrs. Sampson's affection for Alfred
Irons was neither deep nor tender in its nature, and in settling the
bill for services rendered in the railroad case there was no sentiment
likely to restrain her from making the best possible bargain. The
bargain she made was of a nature to send her about her flat singing
songs of triumph such as Deborah sang over the slaughter of the
unfortunate Sisera.
The wily but impressible Erastus Snaffle, cheered by the widow's wine,
warmed by her smile, and smitten by her amiable conversation, had
bestowed upon her, merely as a tribute which mammon might pay to the
ever-womanly, three thousand shares of Princeton Platinum stock. He had
done this at a time when it seemed doubtful whether even his adroitness
could make the scheme a success; and it somewhat mars the lustre of his
generosity to record that he afterward regretted his impulsive
open-handedness. He had been able to prevent Mrs. Sampson from
realizing on her stock, very reasonably feeling that he was making
philanthropic endeavors to benefit an ungrateful world rather against
its will, and he did not mean that she should make a stumbling-block
for him of his own generosity by putting this gift on the market when
he wished to supply all buyers himself.
When it was quoted at three, the high-water mark so far, he had
beguiled the widow with a cock-and-bull story about the formalities of
transferrence on the books of the company of stocks which had been
given away; and by the time Mrs. Sampson had cleared her mind from the
entanglements of this ingenious fiction the bottom had dropped out of
the market.
In the midst of her disappointment in seeing what to her would have
been almost a fortune melting into thin air, the fertile brain of Mrs.
Sampson had given birth to what was nothing less than an inspiration,
She had gone to see Alfred Irons, and delicately but firmly insinuated
that it was high time she received substantial tokens of the gratitude
of the Wachusett Syndicate, for her efforts in their behalf with the
Hon. Thomas Greenfield. Mr. Irons had answered, as she had expected him
to, that she had presented no bill. To this her reply was ready. She
was prepared to state what would satisfy her. She explained that she
felt the delicacy of her position, since, if any consideration passed
to her directly from the corporation, it was sure to be known, and
unpleasant comment made. She had in her possession, she continued,
certain stock, of which the market value was somewhere between two and
two and a half, which, it struck her, might serve admirably to veil the
generosity which had been promised her. Her proposition, in brief, was
that Irons should take her three thousand shares of stock at four
dollars, the difference between this and the market value, of course,
being refunded to him by the company.
"By Gad! you're a cheeky one!" had been Iron's comment, more expressive
than elegant, when the widow had laid her scheme wholly before him.
The railroad matter had, however, been settled to the satisfaction of
the syndicate. Mr. Greenfield's support of the Wachusett scheme at the
hearing had been of the utmost importance, especially as Mrs. Sampson
had been able to persuade "Honest Tom" that a perfectly fair
proposition made to him by Mr. Staggchase was in the nature of a
high-handed bribe. This proposition had been presented in a somewhat
scandalous light, and in the face of it Hubbard had induced his
associates to throw up the whole Feltonville scheme. The Railroad
Commissioners had issued the coveted certificate for the Wachusett
route, and the rest was easy. Irons was therefore grateful to the
widow, and he at length agreed to consult his associates, and he did
not deny Mrs. Sampson's observation that it was as much for the benefit
of the corporation as of herself that money passing between them should
be covered by some such disguise as that of this stock operation.
The widow had returned home not over sanguine, and her astonishment was
scarcely less than her pleasure when, on Wednesday afternoon, she
received a note from Irons, assenting to her proposition with the
modification that the purchasing figure should be three dollars instead
of four. It was a fact as far beyond the limits of the widow's
knowledge as it was beyond that of his colleagues, that Irons meant to
make this transaction the means of increasing a revenge which he
already had in train. That gentleman had never forgiven Fenton for
burning the order for railroad bonds, and when accident threw the
Princeton Platinum stock into his hands he determined to make it the
means of the artist's discomfiture. It was only the day after he had
offered Fenton his four thousand shares that Mrs. Sampson appeared with
her offer of three thousand more. He had no doubt of his ability to
entrap Fenton into buying, the one weak spot in his plan being the
fact, of which he was in complete ignorance, that Fenton already held
stock and had nothing whatever with which to buy more. He was willing
to let the widow's bribe pass to her under so plausible a disguise, and
he said to himself with a chuckle that he had far rather sell Fenton
the seven thousand shares than four.
If he were unable to sell to Fenton it appeared to Irons as on the
whole highly probable that he could dispose of the stock for the
corporation at a price which would materially lessen the amount of
their bonus to the widow; or if the market should chance to look
promising, he might find it worth while to buy it from his colleagues
with a view to realizing something on it himself.
Perhaps it was because he was doing business with a woman, perhaps it
was the consciousness of the bribe which the bargain covered and a
desire to leave as little record of it as possible, perhaps it was only
the carelessness of extreme haste, that caused Irons to send to the
widow so ambiguous and dangerous a note as the following,--
"DEAR MRS. SAMPSON,--I am suddenly called to New York, and leave
to-night. I will take all your Princeton Platinum stock at three
dollars. Please deliver it at my office to-morrow with this note as a
voucher." Yours truly,
"ALFRED IRONS."
It was the misfortune of Alfred Irons that Mrs. Sampson took an extra
cup of coffee that evening and could not sleep; and in the watches of
the night, either the devil or her own soul--the inspirations of the
two being too similar for one rashly to venture to discriminate between
them--said to her, "Amanda! Now is your chance." Thereafter, no fumes
of coffee were necessary to keep the widow awake for the remainder of
the night; and on Thursday morning before she presented herself at
Irons's office she had an interesting interview with no less a
personage than Mr. Erastus Snaffle himself.
Mrs. Sampson began by declaring that she wished to purchase a certain
amount of Princeton Platinum stock, but before long the need she felt
of having her feminine guile supported by masculine intelligence had
led her to make a clean breast of the situation. She showed Mr. Snaffle
Mr. Irons's note, calling his attention particularly to the ill-chosen
word "all" which seemed to her to afford the means of unloading
indefinitely at the expense of the absent financier. Her enthusiasm
received a cruel shock when Snaffle retorted with a burst of ill-bred
laughter,--
"Oh Lord! You must think Irons is a dog-goned fool!"
"But," the widow persisted, "it says 'all' the stock, doesn't it?"
"Do you think you could make his firm buy up all the Princeton on that
flimsy dodge?" retorted Snaffle contemptuously.
"We'll see," Amanda declared, nodding her head determinedly. "The
question is how much do you think they will stand? A man ought to know
that better than a woman."
A new look of cunning came into the fat face of the speculator, and his
numerous superfluous chins began to be agitated as if with excitement.
"Well," he said, "if you can stick them for any I don't see why you
can't for a lot. I've just four thousand shares left, and you might as
well run them all in on the old man."
The widow laughed with malicious glee.
"I don't know," she replied, "how this will turn out, but if I wasn't
going to get a cent from it, I'd try it just for the sake of getting
even with Al Irons."
"Oh, its your opportunity," he said, with agile change of base, "and as
for getting ahead of him, I'm blessed if I wouldn't bet on you every
time. Seven thousand shares isn't much for a house like theirs. We put
the stock at ten dollars on purpose so folks could handle a lot of it
and talk big without having much money in. Come, you just clear out the
whole thing for me, and I'll let you have it at two and a half, just
for your good looks."
"Thank you for nothing," was the reply of the redoubtable widow. "I
took the trouble to find out the market price on my way down here and
anybody can buy plenty of it for two and an eighth, without being good
looking at all."
Erastus chuckled, rubbing his fat hands together in delighted
appreciation of his companion's wit.
"Come," he pleaded, "when you get to making eyes at that clerk, he'll
buy anything you offer, no matter what Irons told him. I wouldn't give
much for the man that would let a little memorandum stand in the way of
obliging a lady."
Amanda did not have good blood in her veins without appreciating the
coarse vulgarity of Snaffle; but neither had she associated for years
with his kind without having the edge of her distaste worn away. She
was, besides, a woman and a vain one, and the undisguised admiration
with which he regarded her put her in excellent humor. It confirmed the
verdict of her mirror that the care with which she had arrayed herself
for this expedition had not been wasted. She smiled as she answered
him, tapping her chin with her well-gloved forefinger.
"But, of course," she observed, dispassionately, "if I bought of you at
all I should buy conditionally. I'll give you two for the stock, and
take it if I can sell it to Irons."
"Oh, don't rob yourself," Snaffle returned, with good-natured sarcasm.
"What's to hinder my selling it for two and an eighth myself?"
"Two and an eighth asked and no buyers is what they told me!" retorted
the widow imperturbably. "I don't know much about stocks, but I know
that if you could have sold for almost any price you'd have done it
long ago."
"Right you are," admitted Snaffle, good-naturedly, "if I'd nobody to
consider but myself; but just the same, I sha'n't kick the bottom out
of the market before it falls out of itself."
"Then I understand," said the widow, with an air, gathering herself
together as if to depart, "that you won't take my offer."
"Oh, come now," protested Snaffle, "why don't you ask me to give it to
you as I did the other?"
"So delicate of him," murmured the widow, confidentially to the
universe at large, "to fling that at me."
"I ain't flinging it at you," Snaffle returned, unabashed. "But, come
now, let's talk business. If I give you an option on this, so long as
you are going to sell it at three dollars, of course you ought to pay
me more than the market price. I'll be d'ed if I let you have it less
than two and a half."
"One doesn't know which to admire most, Mr. Snaffle, your politeness to
ladies or your generosity."
"Oh, don't mention it," was the speculator's grinning reply. "Come,
now, don't be a pig. Twenty per cent profit ought to satisfy anybody."
"I'll give you two," said Mrs. Sampson, with feminine persistency.
Snaffle turned on his heel with a word seldom spoken in the presence of
ladies.
"Well, you might as well get out of this, then," he remarked,
brusquely. "You're a beauty, but you don't know anything about
business."
Amanda regarded him with an inscrutable glance for an instant,
evidently making up her mind that he meant what he said.
"Well," she observed; "if you want to rob me, I'm only a woman with
nobody to take my part, and I shall have to give you what you ask."
"Gad!" he ejaculated. "If one man in ten was as well able to take his
own part as you are, things 'd be some different from what they are
now."
And the smile of Mrs. Amanda Welsh Sampson indicated that even so
high-flavored a compliment as this was not wholly displeasing to her.
The certificates of stock were produced and duly endorsed, and, tucking
them into her handbag, the widow went on her way attended by wishes for
her success which were probably the more genuine because the
transaction was only conditional.
"Well," Snaffle communed with himself after she had departed; "there
ain't no flies on the widow, and I guess she'll manage that clerk.
She's a clever one, but if she'd been a little cleverer, so as to
appreciate that I couldn't put that amount of stock on the market
without sending the price down to bed rock, she might have had the lot
at her own figure. I'd have been glad to take one fifty for it."
Meanwhile the widow had pursued her scheming way toward State Street.
The moral support of Snaffle's testimony to her ability and his
admiration for her personal appearance probably upheld her during her
interview with Mr. Iron's clerk. That young man, an exquisite creature,
who had the appearance of giving his mind largely to his collars, was
overwhelmed by the amount of stock which Mrs. Sampson produced. He
explained with some confusion that in the hurry incident upon Mr.
Iron's unexpected departure, he had neglected to make a memorandum, but
that he understood that he was to receive three thousand shares of
Princeton Platinum with Mr. Iron's letter as a voucher.
"I may have been mistaken," he observed, apologetically. "Mr. Irons was
called away in a great hurry, and I did get some of his directions
confused. It's singular that he didn't name the amount in the letter."
"I'm very sorry he didn't," returned the widow, with an engaging air of
appealing to the other's generosity. "It puts me in a very awkward
position, just as if I were trying to impose on you. Mr. Irons knew
just what I had and said he'd take it all."
"Oh, I didn't mean for an instant," the clerk protested, blushing with
confusion, "that you were trying to impose on us."
The clerk was young and susceptible, the widow was mature and adroit;
he was confused and uncertain, she was definite and determined. Mr.
Irons had, moreover, given the young man to understand that the
transaction was a confidential and personal one, which involved more
than appeared on the surface. Confronted by the phraseology of Mr.
Iron's note, backed by Mrs. Sampson's insinuating manner and unblushing
statements, the clerk laid aside his discretion, and in the end allowed
himself to fall a victim to the wiles of the astute widow, who walked
away considerably richer than she came, besides being able to bring joy
to the heart of Erastus Snaffle by a neat sum of ready cash, which she
delivered after another prolonged discussion over the price she should
pay him for the stock.
And on the following morning when she read in the stock reports that
Princeton Platinum had fallen to one and a half, she remembered her
stroke of yesterday with a conscience which if not wholly clear was
thoroughly satisfied.